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A gambling platform headquartered in the Philippines called Philippines Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) provides gambling, betting, and E-casinos outside of the nation. Many POGO companies operate legally in the Philippines by submitting license applications to PAGCOR, but some people run POGO illegally, which is why many legal offshore gaming operations are branded as illegal. If the government shuts down this operation, many Filipinos will lose their jobs and the Philippine economy will suffer a loss of several billion pesos.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1672432/pogos-not-linked-to-illegal-online-gaming-says-pagcor (https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1672432/pogos-not-linked-to-illegal-online-gaming-says-pagcor)

In my opinion, the POGO sector helps many Filipinos meet their basic needs and stimulates the economy, but having so many unlicensed offshore gambling establishments will harm the Philippines government's reputation.

yes it stimulates the economy and during duterte's time it helped because he needs funds to govern the country and for his Bill, Bill, Bill project. at present its Bongbong, Philippines gets an aide because Jr is friendly with Blinken or Biden admin.

the only party that doesn't like the POGO as far as i  know is the Liberal (opposition). if its their president that sits on malacanang, they wouldn't suggest POGO  to be abolished legal or not

I think it is unfair to the legal companies that they have to compete with illegal brands. If they offer the same services and dispute the same public, all of them should follow the same regulations, otherwise, what incentive companies will have to follow the rules and pay taxes to the government?

In my opinion every businesses should be allowed by the government to start unregulated until they become profitable and solid. Only then they should start following the local requirements. Anyway, inevitably it would happen at some point, being impossible to stay informal forever.

The problem is not POGO itself but the implementation of the law or prevention of the operation of illegal POGOs in the Philippines. As you said, there are ways to legally operate POGO in the Philippines that will benefit both the POGO and the government of the Philippines. The government acknowledges the money they can earn with taxes and everything coming from POGO can help the economy of the country. They are good sources of funds if they work legally. The benefits for both parties are overwhelming if only the POGO is operating legally. The problem only arises when POGO is not legally registered. Most often as well, illegal POGOs are the ones that bring in illegal workers through tourist visas. MOst of the problems are from illegal POGO.

I think the Philippine government should not declare it illegal but be more active and vigilant in preventing illegal POGOs to operate in the country. Illegal operators do not only affects the country but also other POGOs that operate legally. They pose a danger in their own niche.

If the Philippines is capable of tracking down and closing illegal POGO in the country, then the legal ones can continue operating.

We don't really know the ratio over legal and illegal POGO but you may think that illegal operations are more compare to the legal ones? If that's the case then the government should take action on those illegal operations that doesn't pay taxes to the government, this has been an issue way back but it still exists these days.

Well it might be a bit too late to wonder about whether or not PGO should be declared as illegal or not since it already exists in a perfectly legal fashion. Of course the government will not want to miss out on profits from the legal side of this entire scheme but they should also find new ways to regulate and protect the online gambling because there are too many vulnerable groups which need to be protected. So instead of declaring it illegal (which I very much doubt they intend to do since this is a cash cow for them), they should be exploring new options. Usually I am not the guy who is on the side of regulators but sometimes it is needed.

Government should weigh the cons and pros, and during the pandemic, it really brought big money on the government to help their people. However, as time goes by, there are a lot of negative connotations with Philippine POGO, and if I'm not mistaken, some of the Chinese are illegal with no documents whatsoever and then again, correct me if I'm wrong, there are kidnapping of Chinese nationals and it points out to those who are involved in POGO. It could be legal in a sense, but the government will have to gauge if they want to continue with it or not at this point.

First things first, if gambling is allowed in the country then that should be allowed even if their target customers aren't the locals since it's said that it's an OFFSHORE. Many countries are doing that, they're allowing tourists to gamble and don't allow their locals to be the customers so that income would just come in to them whether it's online or offline/local gambling.
Next, if they've taken a license and they've been through with authorized agencies and applied for it, there's nothing wrong with that as they've been through the process and complied with requirements.
Lastly, a government that's earning a lot from it legally just have to raid those illegal ones that are operating into their jurisdictions to remove those competitors and that will also force those illegal operations to be registered and apply for their licenses to become legal.

This is a big number for a country that just struggling to get back after that recent catastrophe brought about by typhoon Paeng the Philippine government must reconsider banning POGO the positive economic effect outweighs the negative effect of having POGO in the country, the Philippines to effectively supervise the POGO it has been a source of corruption, I read sometimes ago that Chinese POGO operators are trafficking their people and bribing airport people to let their people in, POGO has become a cash cow of corrupt government officials, this is what they should look deeply.

Philippine has made POGO legal, as they are licensed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

But the problem is, there are some POGO that runs illegally in the country, and most of them are run in secretly, but nevertheless, you will hear reports about the police raiding them and mostly they are illegal so what the authorities do is to send them back home to China.

I know that there is much that the government can do about those who are going to lose their jobs, but as some point they have to draw the line here. The economic benefits is outweight by what is going on behind the scene, killings and kidnappings and corruptions.

Even the Chinese government are totally against it, so why not the Philippine government do that as well?

Its impossible that they would really be shutting it down as a whole even though there are some lapses or misses when it comes to those illegal operation made out by some casinos but it wont really be a reason
for them to completely shut.We know that if there's legal ones then there's illegal ones which government do always hunt off these fellas.Its just normal for a government to look upon
when it comes to potential profits or taxes that they could imply with these casinos which it would be normal that they should follow on any regulation that would be imposed
or set by the government once they do decide on running off their business on this country.

As bad as closing these businesses can be for certain people, I believe the laws need to be followed.
In many countries gambling is not even allowed, so... in a country that is "benefited" with being allowed to exist, it is valid to at least have a license and operate legally.
I don't know the details... whether the license and taxes levied by the government are fair, but operating underground is worse than complying with the law.

True, many of them have been running illegally and they're just renting condominium units and that's why those rent prices near Pasay/MOA have increased a lot.
But since the government of us now trying to take down many of them, there's also a decrease in income for most of those establishments that are benefiting from it. It's better to be legal than to operate illegally because many of those workers are also Chinese folks that have tourist visas and are considered also illegal immigrant workers. News is all around about many of them being departed.

POGO is technically legal as long as these gambling companies comply with all the necessary needs to make their operation legal. For a gambling-friendly country like the Philippines or any other, of course, the only allowed gambling companies to operate are only those who have the required license that was being approved by PAGCOR.

The problem is not the POGO itself but it's usual to see that there are lots of gambling companies that operate illegally. These companies, since not regulated, are saving their asses in paying taxes and they also compete with legal gambling operations.

There might be some corruption too that's why some illegal gambling companies can operate under the shadows and that's where the problem starts.

exactly what you said, definitely there is corruption involved why the existence of illegal gambling companies. because they won't be encouraged to do their business illegally if no one will back-up their business. so for me, they can exist so long they are complying with their government protocols.

It's really not great when a licensed sector has to battle with unlicensed entities. But this is something where only government can intervene and stop such activities from being carried out. Because at the end of the day, it is affecting the tax revenue of the government itself. They can easily monitor and block the offshore gambling platforms in their country by installing a firewall just the way China is doing it. I believe that will help the country in scoring more gambling revenue from their own licensed entities and its effect will be seen and the benefits will be realized in an immediate basis. Unlicensed gambling is indeed a problem in the crypto sector as well.

It's not POGO's fault, but those people who run POGO illegally. It's similar like Bitcoin is created to break a relation with any third parties since we can send our Bitcoin by peer to peer, but many fraudster using Bitcoin as money laundering. POGO is legal, I don't think Philippine's government will shutting down POGO because they're get a lot money from POGO and it's used for their expenditure. If they're lack of money, their plan would be ruined.

Quite sad with the action by the government. Instead of focusing to those which are not registered to PAGCOR, they chose to consider removing every POGO firms in the country which I think is unfair because there are those who complied but they were also caught by the tension to those who illegaly operates. Indeed there would be families to be affected by doing so, and I hope things would be balanced.

But on my personal viewpoint, Philippines cannot really forcefully stop POGOs because the government benefit from it. That's how simple it is; things could be worked out as long as it generates money, sad to say. So maybe, bias would go to those registered POGOs to continue operating in Philippines. In my opinion, it is like with vaping and cigarette industries in PH wherein even if government are against it, they cannot stop its production because it has the largest contribution with taxation. And I believe it could go as well with POGOs.

POGO helps many Filipinos to make the ends meet because of this industry. If the government will declare it illegal and ban it in the Philippines, surely, a lot of Filipinos will go unemployed which will make the unemployment rate higher, making a higher percentage of individuals relying on the help of the government aide alone. There are legally operating POGO in the Philippines already. What needs to be done instead of banning it is imposing strict regulations on POGO to determine which ones are the one legally operating their business and which isn't.

Of course, if POGO has a permit to operate legally speaking, they must have the documents that allows them to do so such as business and tax permits. Tax is one of the revenues of funds of the government as well so they really must look thoroughly so other can't evade taxation. In addition, POGO's should be monitored closely because there are some POGOs which conducts illegal activities such as scamming and phishing as their bread and butter. In illegally operating POGOs there are even human trafficking happening and some of the employees are not compensated well which makes it a nightmare instead of a blessing.

Of course, on the one hand, the government wants to control the flows of illegal gambling operators in their opinion, and if you can't control it, then you just start banning it, but the article still says that these companies have the opportunity to legalize after passing a check. But since illegal gambling often has a criminal connotation, not all gambling operators registered in POGO will also receive a license in Pagcor.

They can just ban the illegal ones and let the legal one continue. Maybe those who are illegal are only using the name pogo because they think they can get away but they are wrong since they are still being busted out but that's a good news at the same time. It can mean that the officials on your country is not corrupt. Not unlike to some where they allow illegal operators in exchange for some cold cash.

This is why we never hear news like this from them. Philippines is not Las Vegas but I was surprised when you said that they are mostly depending on casino revenues. Your government should think about it before doing an action.

This to me is a simple situation with easy solution, if the Philippine government really want to do things the right way, since they know that shutting down those gambling firms will cause a lot of citizens to loose their jobs, and this will greatly harm the economy of the entire country, then i think they should do is make it mandatory for all the POGOs to get an operational license, and also make the license procurement process easy and seamless so as to encourage all the POGO firms to get the license.

Then maybe after a set period of time, maybe like a year or a year and six months, when it is believed that all of the POGO firms should have gotten a license, they can then declare the POGO firms as legal, and then go after those that have refused to acquire the operational license.     

For there to be illegal casinos in operation is a sign that the "Philippines Offshore Gaming Operation" (POGO) has failed in carrying out its duties or either taking bribe. Because i see no reason why some casinos should be allowed to operate illegally without license in the first place? As that's the origin how scamming gets started if prompt action is not put in place. Because just as O.P said how gambling is important to the Philippian's economy, dor me, the best plan will be to ban all illegal casinos, while only legal and licensed casinos are allowed to operate.

Yes, but as I have said, even if it raking billions to the Philippine government, still though I would say that the effect is very significant specially if people are dying because of it. They pay good rent because condos are expensive here but then again, it is still illegal by law.

And there is now a good that the Philippines is becoming one of Chinese provinces because of the proliferation of POGO and the number of Chinese that are now in the country. And for me this doesn't look good. So they should all be deported if found illegally working here.

When it comes on corruption and bribery then there's no doubt that Philippine government is really known for that which it is really safe to presume out that this might be the reason on why there are still

some illegal casinos who do continually to operate despite of such laws and prohibitions which it would be understandable those kind of probabilities but well we cant prove it out.

We know that there are indeed things which do operate legally despite of being banned or does need up license.There would be always those law violators.

why should it be declared illegal? POGO is not the problem here, it is the illegal offshore gambling operators. it always confuses me that a lot of people in the Philippines always blame POGO when illegal offshore gambling operators are found and have been operating in the country. to be honest I feel like the only reason why they keep insisting that POGO is to blame for these illegal offshore operators is because of politics.

I believe the Philippines government are wise when they first create an organization called the PAGCOR which function is the body that provides licenses of operation to the companies that provide POGO games to the people of the Philippines but shutting the whole system down because some irresponsible POGO operators or companies chose to operate illegally is never the right decision.
What they need is to place a hard penalty on any company that's guilty of illegal operation and others will submit their license applications to PAGCOR.

There's a pros and a cons to POGOs as all things do, as you said earlier they stimulate the economy but at the same time some profiteer off of being unlicensed which also could give them all the liberties to be unfair to their customers. In my honest opinion, until the current administration of the Philippines stand up their pimply asses and actually do something to prevent multiple crises within their territory, POGOs will continue to persist illegal or legal, as well as other problems they currently face. Judging Bongbong, he's not up for it. He loved the title but he couldn't put in the work.

Should be declared as legal with limitations IMO.

It is continuously bringing a stream of revenue to the government, it's just that its workers aren't sourced from the Philippines but rather from another country. Lots of undocumented workers from China were being deported each day but lots are still getting sent here and that's the main problem. Instead of it helping to open more jobs, it just eats up space and a lot of other things compared to what it's giving to the country.

If only things are managed and handled in this god-forsaken country that would be great.

If nothing harm will be created to the community and it can generate additional income which can help the country then why not? Government accumulated P1.22 billion  as per the BIR so it gives big help to the country if they regulate this very well.

This one need governed bodies to avoid any abuse of other authorities or create violence. So overall of this theirs nothing really wrong to make POGO legal.

It's just the interpretation of many due to social media things that have been scattered with their opinions. We're still far from being that and I understand the sentiment of those that have been looking to that but they're far from being real patriotic people.
Well, the concern is also being addressed that those that are illegally operating in the country, they're being hunted and shut down because they lack documents and most of their Chinese workers are deported and it keeps coming.

Obviously, POGO is 100% legal as long as they are regulated and pass all the necessary documents to become legal.

The problem here is not the POGO itself but there are corrupt officials who give power to those illegal gambling companies to operate in the country.

That's what the authority needs to do, to crack down on those illegal gambling operations so that people will only put their money on legal ones.

Regulation is the problem.
People from the Philippines including me know how this work. The "Padrino (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padrino_system)" system. There may be gambling operators that are applying for legality but they lack connection with the high authorities and that is why they are forced to just do it illegally.
The other thing that hinders them to be legal is those who are against it, especially in the sector of gambling prevention or the elites that are trying to topple the government just because they agreed with making it legal.

As long as the Philippines will benefit from them, I think there's no harm in making them legal, besides, it doesn't really hit the poor in a substantial number (because we have our own ways to gamble, i.e. card games), their customers are mostly the rich so let them drain their money.

I thought you said POGO is already legal? How can they declare POGO legal if they are already legal? Or are you saying they are unregulated and they should be regulated and made fully legal?  Also little confused over here, how do they run POGO illegally if the main purpose of POGO is to, according to you, operate outside the nation legally? You seem to have mixed up something here.

Also banning won't fix anything. Those who operate those casinos illegally won't be affected by the ban at all. They will still continue with their operation. Only those who are trying to operate their casino legally will be affected by the ban. Instead of causing damage to the whole industry, better to hunt those down who run illegally, make them pay hefty fines and if they wish to continue, operate legally with a license.

There are a lot of good things about POGO, like the taxes they are paying and the money they spent staying here they bring dollars and it contributed to stabilizing the government's economy, but for something that is a good source of money is also a source of corruption, a lot of airport personnel are found guilty of human trafficking because they let undocumented Chinese to get in without proper documents by bribing airport officials, the lack of regulation and monitoring caused a lot of kidnapping, human trafficking, and corruption, the government only need one agency to monitor and stop these bad activities, something that the government cannot come out with up to now.