PH Senator pushes a Ban to POGOs and All Sort of Online Gambling...

[serjent05]

This is very bad for the people who love online gambling in the Philippines.  A senator of the Philippines proposes a Bill to ban all Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) and all kinds of Online Gambling.  Any individual involved  will be fined  up to Php500k(US$8,536) or imprisoned for up to six months. More story on the link below:

Philippines senator pushes for banning POGOs, all forms of online gambling



The proposed bill is due to the recent illegal POGO raids where human trafficking, murder, and money laundering were uncovered. Due to this, one of the Philippine senators believes that the best move is to ban POGOs and online gambling all in all and punish any person who is involved in online gambling activity if the bill is approved.

In my personal view, I do not think there is a need to ban POGO's and online gambling.  This is not the fault of a regular individual but the institution behind the gambling regulatory board.  Instead of banning and penalizing people who are engaged in gambling activities, the bill should strengthen the regulation and purge the institution of any corrupt official that allows these illegal activities to proliferate.  He should implement a bill that will severely punish any government official that engage in illegal gambling activities. Banning POGOs and online gambling is like taking the easiest way out and depriving the Philippine government of the possible revenue that can be generated from these ventures and as if this kind of bill will prevent illegal gambling from existing in a country. I hope this kind of bill won't progress instead take an alternative implementation of cleansing the gambling regulatory board of any corrupt official and holding them accountable for their wicked crimes.

What about you do you think banning offshore gambling operators and online gambling will solve the spread of illegal gambling activities in a country?

[acroman08]

are they sure they want to miss out on all the revenue POGO and online gambling will bring? from watching the news it looks to me that POGO/online gambling isn't the issue, it is the corrupt officials who only care about making money for themselves. the Philippines could greatly benefit from POGO and online gambling, we just need officials who have the best intentions for our country(sadly these people are extremely hard to find).

What about you do you think banning offshore gambling operators and online gambling will solve the spread of illegal gambling activities in a country?

it won't. instead of banning them, they need to take full advantage of the revenue offshore gambling will bring to the country.

[Oshosondy]

The proposed bill is due to the recent illegal POGO raids where human trafficking, murder, and money laundering were uncovered. Due to this, one of the Philippine senators believes that the best move is to ban POGOs and online gambling all in all and punish any person who is involved in online gambling activity if the bill is approved.

What about you do you think banning offshore gambling operators and online gambling will solve the spread of illegal gambling activities in a country?

Instead to focus on regulations and ways to reduce illegal activities, they want to ban gambling. Those are two different things.

If gambling is banned in a country, it will result to more illegal gambling activities.

it won't. instead of banning them, they need to take full advantage of the revenue offshore gambling will bring to the country.

According to what I know, offshore gambling may not bring revenue for the government. Local casinos are the government focus because that is where they see taxes from. Although some countries have strict regulations that makes any gambling site that wants to provide gambling services for their citizens to have physical presence in the country.

[Potato Chips]

How are they banning the online gambling though? esp the offshore platforms?

Last I heard, when a regulatory body from PH banned binance, it was only at domain level. The result? many folks easily bypassed this by changing DNS lol. A cease and desist was suggested but of course, they wouldn't wanna put that much effort.

In any case, I wouldn't worry just yet as a lot of proposed bills get trashed all the time. Hoping for the best tho!

[Fivestar4everMVP]

From all I've seen and experienced about the government banning something or an activity that several many people are engaged in, it has never help solve the issue the government banned that thing or activity for, rather in some situations, the ban tend to be counter productive where it acts as in advertisment, which means, more people get to discover and join that activity, even while it's banned.

For example, here in Nigeria, the Nigerian government banned cryptocurrency in the whole of the country, but after the ban, the number of cryptocurrency users in the country have increased with a significant number higher than the previous number of persons that were into it.

The Philippinian government banning gambling won't stop people from gambling, that's a fact, many people in the country who have never gambled before may decide to start gambling as well, which at the end of the day, it means the ban was counter productive.

But then, since this bill has not been approved, I personally believe it won't be approved, maybe the government are just looking for a way to raise gambling tax in the country.

[AmoreJaz]

From all I've seen and experienced about the government banning something or an activity that several many people are engaged in, it has never help solve the issue the government banned that thing or activity for, rather in some situations, the ban tend to be counter productive where it acts as in advertisment, which means, more people get to discover and join that activity, even while it's banned.

For example, here in Nigeria, the Nigerian government banned cryptocurrency in the whole of the country, but after the ban, the number of cryptocurrency users in the country have increased with a significant number higher than the previous number of persons that were into it.

The Philippinian government banning gambling won't stop people from gambling, that's a fact, many people in the country who have never gambled before may decide to start gambling as well, which at the end of the day, it means the ban was counter productive.

But then, since this bill has not been approved, I personally believe it won't be approved, maybe the government are just looking for a way to raise gambling tax in the country.

This is giving them billion dollars of revenue, so total shutdown of this industry will be a big dent to their economy. And I don't think this can totally stop people from accessing online gambling sites. They will surely find a way how to go around on this regulation.
What they need to focus on is how to curb the corruption among government officials. Because that's the reason why they are having illegal activities proliferating in the community. This will surely be a long discussion as I don't think lawmakers will just approve the bill. If they will push thru the approval, they will find hard time where to get such loss of large chunk of revenue.

[blockman]

They only need to ban the POGOs because the crimes are happening there, kidnapping for ransom and scam activities are all there. But with actual online gambling, they only have to regulate it so that only the adults will only see their ads. Regulating the ads that are being done through sponsors, that's what they need to focus with because kids nowadays are also on social media and it's known to our country that many social media influencers are advertising online gambling on their videos and contents.

[PX-Z]

from watching the news it looks to me that POGO/online gambling isn't the issue, it is the corrupt officials who only care about making money for themselves.

Yes, they are expected to provide more tax, more income to the government but because of their protectors and connection on some government people, they merely provide tax and the percentage of tax from them are very little compare to other business.

Banning of POGO is actually good but for the reason of banning all online gambling activity is worst decision to be made, and i guess many will object it by votation unless revised.

[alani123]

Philippines dictatorship keeps blaming people's poverty on personal responsibility while they do nothing to restore democracy in their country or end corruption. They eat luxurious meals every day while the daily wage of workers in the Philippines can be 2$...

People earning so little have very little hope of earning eniugh to get themselves out of poverty. They live in sn endless spiral that eventually leads them to a life of poverty. A very large percentage of the population lives under these conditions. If Philippines had the infrastructure to limit poverty and bad living conditions then I would be all for such initiatives. But the underlying issues here are more than just addiction.

[Davidvictorson]

When I read about some of the bills passed in parliament, to ban this or implement that, I know that it didn't come from a place of empirical evidence and research. Rather it came from a place of emotions, sentiments and irrational thinking. It is akin to the idiomatic expression which is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It means that an avoidable error in which something good or of value is eliminated when trying to get rid of something unwanted. It is good that the Senator wants to reduce the rate of human trafficking, murder, and money laundering  which came as a result of illegal POGO but that would affect the growing gambling industry which is an way to grow the economy of a country and some other benefits. The senator or his aides have to withdraw their bill if possible and present it again when they have done their research and come up with pragmatic solutions to counter human trafficking, murder, and money laundering.

[_act_]

How are they banning the online gambling though? esp the offshore platforms?

Last I heard, when a regulatory body from PH banned binance, it was only at domain level. The result? many folks easily bypassed this by changing DNS lol. A cease and desist was suggested but of course, they wouldn't wanna put that much effort.

Those countries do not have rules that can effectively ban offshore services. They will only lose on tax if they ban online gambling. People will move to the offshore gambling sites to gamble. Sometimes I think about how illiterate some leaders are thinking. This kind of thinking is so illiterate. I am not expecting a senator to think like this, not to talk of proposing such bill. I hope the bill will not be passed.

[Wind_FURY]

In my personal view, I do not think there is a need to ban POGO's and online gambling.  This is not the fault of a regular individual but the institution behind the gambling regulatory board.  Instead of banning and penalizing people who are engaged in gambling activities, the bill should strengthen the regulation and purge the institution of any corrupt official that allows these illegal activities to proliferate.  He should implement a bill that will severely punish any government official that engage in illegal gambling activities. Banning POGOs and online gambling is like taking the easiest way out and depriving the Philippine government of the possible revenue that can be generated from these ventures and as if this kind of bill will prevent illegal gambling from existing in a country. I hope this kind of bill won't progress instead take an alternative implementation of cleansing the gambling regulatory board of any corrupt official and holding them accountable for their wicked crimes.

What about you do you think banning offshore gambling operators and online gambling will solve the spread of illegal gambling activities in a country?

Banning online gambling, in any form, will not solve the problem. In fact, banning online gambling in some region of the world because some cabal doesn't like it is what strengthens one of Bitcoin's core value proposition - Censorship-Resistance.

I'm not telling you to encourage illegal activities in your country, but if a small group of people decides to remove your right to do something you like with YOUR money, teach the people around you about Bitcoin and its ethos/value propositions.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Well, in my opinion, instead of banning gambling in the country, there should have been more regulatory bodies that they should have on boarded to always make sure they have a thick eye on casinos and other gambling companies that are contributing to these illegal activities. If any casino is caught, they should be punished, fined some certain amount of money, and if an individual is also caught in such an act, he or she should be punished. If casinos or gambling are banned in the country, there are other ways those crimes will still go on; it will not stop such crimes. 

[Viscore]

This is just a proposal, meaning it's not yet approved. POGO could be banned (most likely), but online gambling cannot be banned entirely since people access different online casinos that are not operating in the Philippines. They can't ban something outside their jurisdiction. If they really want to ban all gambling platforms, they'd need to remove internet access for Filipinos, which is impossible.

I agree with banning POGO, but they need to be realistic about their goal of banning the entire online gambling platform. Otherwise, they may seem like they don't know what they are talking about.

[Kelward]

Banning online gambling because of corruption that is linked to it is just like throwing the bath water and the child in it away or condemning a basket of oranges because there are some rotten ones in it. The Philippine government should tackle the corruption in their POGOs and allow gamblers who gambles genuinely online to do so without any problems. I believe that the motion of the ban is just an opinion of a single senator, hopefully it'll be rejected by the majority of the senators and thrown out as something that will not benefit their economy and gambling community.

[Frankolala]

PH government has just opened the door to illegal gambling because gambling is part of human nature and no one can stop it. Banning POGO and online gambling is a wrong move.

I don't know why government don't arrest these bad actors and implement strict regulations for everyone's benefit but rather they get the wrong impression and put the blame on it. Only few people are the corrupt ones while majority are just having fun with gamble.

[mirakal]

are they sure they want to miss out on all the revenue POGO and online gambling will bring? from watching the news it looks to me that POGO/online gambling isn't the issue, it is the corrupt officials who only care about making money for themselves. the Philippines could greatly benefit from POGO and online gambling, we just need officials who have the best intentions for our country(sadly these people are extremely hard to find).

What about you do you think banning offshore gambling operators and online gambling will solve the spread of illegal gambling activities in a country?

it won't. instead of banning them, they need to take full advantage of the revenue offshore gambling will bring to the country.

Certainly it won’t but if senators will push through this, all those future revenues will be lost. Thus, leaving the Philippines free from online gambling operators but will also suffer from not gaining anymore potential profits out from the proceeds of online gambling. However, I won’t say it’s all about disadvantages since upon doing my research, if this is true that reports of trafficking, kidnapping, murder, torture, prostitution and other abuses have been linked to POGOs, then banning could also end up as a good decision in order to lessen all these abuses mentioned.

[Taskford]

I tried to research about this issue and find out that those operators of that POGO hubs are committing crimes like hacking,kidnapping,torture and human trafficking. So if that's the case happening in that place then, Its really more better for government to decide to eliminate the existence of POGO's in their country since there's nothing to get from that industry and might Philippines will became a center of money laundering schemes.

PH government has just opened the door to illegal gambling because gambling is part of human nature and no one can stop it. Banning POGO and online gambling is a wrong move.

I don't know why government don't arrest these bad actors and implement strict regulations for everyone's benefit but rather they get the wrong impression and put the blame on it. Only few people are the corrupt ones while majority are just having fun with gamble.

It will be a wrong move if there's nothing illegal happening there but if those case I mentioned is happening then I guess its better to stop it for betterment of their country and also to their citizens.

Yeah maybe government can get something from them but its not really worth it if there's illegalities happening that's why I agree on what PH Senators do since for sure they push to do that because they know that evil deeds are more heavier than profits they can get from those hubs.

[TravelMug]

It's because of what is going from behind this POGO, and recently there was one Mayor, being controversial as they said that she is behind the POGO and that she is a protector and Chinese spies because she is not a Filipino but did come here with Chinese passport and when the Senate investigated here background, that's where they found out all about her and unravelling her secrets.

But it's going to be a big lost for the Philippine government if they will totally shut down or ban POGO for good. And it might again, resulted in more fly by night illegal gambling but other entities in the Philippines as the country is one of the biggest gamblers in Asia.

[sompitonov]

If it is true what he says then breaking the laws is unacceptable for POGOs. There is always a shadow of suspicion of illegal activities on various gambling sites and, of course, local law enforcement agencies must carefully monitor this. I understand that the risk of bribing one of them is high, because there is a lot of money in gambling and the temptation is great for everyone to break something. I have no evidence, but I can assume that even this official could have been paid to speak badly and create charges against POGO in order to eliminate them, because any closed casino is always profitable for its competitors.