[NEWS]Philippine Government Workers Now Barred From All Gambling, New CSC Policy

[rbynxx]

We still have that "palakasan" system in the government, where some people get hired not because they are really qualified, but because they are connected to those already in power. As long as that is not eliminated, the service will remain poor. So what the government is doing here is not really solving the root cause of the problem, but still, I guess it’s better than nothing.

Same here, but we know how connections and money work with these policies, and no, that's not new, considering the Philippines is so politically tied to everything. This policy will be applied and be sampled on the weak, and those who don't have enough power in their hands (the sad truth about all these policies and laws that have been created). It has always been the case, and that hasn't changed even to this day.

Well, it's not that bad to let our government workers be held accountable, but I think the government needs to increase their wages too, considering this sector is the sector that mainly gives life to the taxes imposed on them. I wouldn't be surprised if some government workers try to engage in some gambling activities because of these low salaries, which I think is absurd, but it's not far from reality that this is happening.

[Hispo]

Gambling addiction in the Philippines must be a serious problem at all levels of society if they government decided to take this drastic move in order to keep it's institutions uncorrupted.
On one hand, this feels like an attack to personal freedoms of people in Philippines who happen to have a public job/public position, as they are being told on what they are allowed to spend their money and time. On the other hand, this is a measure which could improve the prestige and standards of the public administration of Philippines, though at a big cost.

It would be the equivalent to demand public workers not to smoke or drink alcohol. I have encountered feelings about this decision, mostly negative, someone who does not have power or access to public money should not face these restrictions.

[TopTort777]

Gambling addiction in the Philippines must be a serious problem at all levels of society if they government decided to take this drastic move in order to keep it's institutions uncorrupted.
On one hand, this feels like an attack to personal freedoms of people in Philippines who happen to have a public job/public position, as they are being told on what they are allowed to spend their money and time. On the other hand, this is a measure which could improve the prestige and standards of the public administration of Philippines, though at a big cost.

It would be the equivalent to demand public workers not to smoke or drink alcohol. I have encountered feelings about this decision, mostly negative, someone who does not have power or access to public money should not face these restrictions.

If gambling in the Philippines is such a serious problem, then why only government workers got ban on gambling? I dont think that number of government workers is greater than number of all other workers that ban would make a result. On the other hand, why only government workers got such attention? Are they better or worse than other people? Or among them are most desperate gamblers?

[danherbias07]

No, it's just right. It's not overkill.

Government officials in the said country are always prone to corruption. If they ever lose money in gambling, they will probably rob the treasury. Or, if they have already robbed the treasury, they will use gambling to wash the money. So, it's for the best.
Let the rich who aren't serving gamble. Those who chose to serve the country should just focus on their work. Gambling takes a lot of time to people and they will probably get lazy if they get addicted to it. So, it's for the best.

[arwin100]

The people in power in Philippines right now just prefer to use their power to deprived some people in their country of their freedom. Few hours ago, we saw the news that Bitcointalk was even banned in the country. Who knows if all their citizens will financially be targeted not to gamble, but I think it will not be up to this.

For those that will be caught this are the penalties they will get "Reprimand for the first offense, suspension for the second offense, and termination of employment for the third offense."

Although, I think the first rule is not hard at all as it can make some people think of gambling and be caught the first time before stopping.

That's actually the worst thing happened and we don't expect that even Bitcointalk will be banned by government.

They are so active with their crackdowns and even the big exchange has been delisted or out of reached https://www.bitdigest.io/posts/binance-bitget-okx-mexc-apps-removed-from-ph-apple-app-store-in-latest-sec-enforcement-move

It seems that they will not do anything good on crypto and what they want is to eliminate everything.

[coin-investor]

Do you guys think this is too much? Just a reminder that these people are not Government officials, they are workers, so they don't hold power in the government like government officials do.

They want a high standard even for their workers, but their salaries and compensation are low. The government may have good intentions in creating this law because these workers can become officials in the future. The government is aware of what addiction can do to people, so it's more of a protection.
Furthermore, the government can control who is under them; they are serious about getting the numbers down of addicted people, so they take their workers first.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

The Philippines updated its CSC policy on April 23(the update will take effect 15 days after the new rule is published), and it now says that Government workers(not just officials) are banned from staying in casinos,  gambling houses, licensed establishments, it doesn't matter if it is land based or offshore and whether in the Philippines or abroad. The ban also includes online gambling, so any kind of online gambling/betting is prohibited.

For those that will be caught this are the penalties they will get "Reprimand for the first offense, suspension for the second offense, and termination of employment for the third offense."

Do you guys think this is too much? Just a reminder that these people are not Government officials, they are workers, so they don't hold power in the government like government officials do.

Well, I've never been to the Philippines and don't know or have absolutely no idea what the state of the economy in the country is like, but then, one thing I believe is that if the country's economic state is not really good and government workers are not earning enough based on the country's cost of living, then it's quite understandable why the government have to ban all government workers from gambling as this could be a way of the government trying to supports the citizens under her to more with the little salary they earn.

I believe that before the government rose up to ban workers in the government from gambling, they must have seen that most government workers are not being able to achieve any tangible thing with the money they are earning in their years of active service due to that possible fact that most of them waste/lost a large percentage of that money to gambling. If really this is the reason why the government decided to ban all government workers in the country from gambling, then it's quite understandable to be honest, gambling is majorly for those who are already stable financially, not for people still struggling to eat three square meals a day.

[Wakate]

I think the government is trying to control how government officials and workers use advantage to make money from betting because some of them can easily manipulation the system or own their own casinos to make money off gambling and they have been able to steal huge amounts of money from the government purse that is meant for development.

[Eternad]

I think the government is trying to control how government officials and workers use advantage to make money from betting because some of them can easily manipulation the system or own their own casinos to make money off gambling and they have been able to steal huge amounts of money from the government purse that is meant for development.

There’s also the irony about this government for tightening their policies against gambling ban while most corruption on different government agencies was exposed and intensified during the current administration.

They are acting like they want to control everything while their main goal is to pretend that they are the one fighting corruption while in reality they are just hiding their track.

More money from tax mean more profit for corruption.

[shinratensei_]

The public service is becoming the main concern here. I see it not too much, and they do it right. The government workse who often gamble might not be able to provide a good quality public service. So it's gonna be disrupting the performance from the regulators to serve its civilian. So it creates bad image for the officials who were not involving in the gamble. I often saw civilians who hate their officials so much due to the lack of quality of services given by official workers. If the reason to ensure the quality of service provided by official workers to the civilian. Why do we see it as something wrong?

[aioc]

There was a time when gambling was a big concern, and many lawmakers and citizen groups were calling for a total ban,  but the government is not keen on doing that. Instead, the government implements strict regulations and control, and this is part of that control and regulation.
They want the number to go down, but the main issue here is compliance; those addicted to gambling who are government workers can circumvent the law because the government lacks monitoring power.

[AmoreJaz]

Gambling addiction in the Philippines must be a serious problem at all levels of society if they government decided to take this drastic move in order to keep it's institutions uncorrupted.
On one hand, this feels like an attack to personal freedoms of people in Philippines who happen to have a public job/public position, as they are being told on what they are allowed to spend their money and time. On the other hand, this is a measure which could improve the prestige and standards of the public administration of Philippines, though at a big cost.

It would be the equivalent to demand public workers not to smoke or drink alcohol. I have encountered feelings about this decision, mostly negative, someone who does not have power or access to public money should not face these restrictions.

If gambling in the Philippines is such a serious problem, then why only government workers got ban on gambling? I dont think that number of government workers is greater than number of all other workers that ban would make a result. On the other hand, why only government workers got such attention? Are they better or worse than other people? Or among them are most desperate gamblers?

They should ban corrupt officials first. Because in gambling, they can get a very good tax from this business. Because if they will totally ban, there will be black market for sure. I believe they are implementing such policy without much thinking about the repercussion in their economy and other things.

This is quite overkill in my opinion. What if you want to have a good weekend in Resorts World Manila, and it is known to have casinos? They should have some exceptions on this policy. And I don't think they can totally implement this knowing of their corrupt system.

[robelneo]

Do you guys think this is too much? Just a reminder that these people are not Government officials, they are workers, so they don't hold power in the government like government officials do.

But they represent the government, government workers and officials are similar in their oath, their salary comes from the people, with this similarity, what applies to officials also applies to workers.
I agree it's quite harsh for workers who do this for fun, but we all know that the government is having problem combatting gambling addiction, so they set a good example by restricting their own. Anyway, this government is not good at implementation, so there's a probability that it's not going to be effective.

[Alphakilo]

Do you guys think this is too much? Just a reminder that these people are not Government officials, they are workers, so they don't hold power in the government like government officials do.

But they represent the government, government workers and officials are similar in their oath, their salary comes from the people, with this similarity, what applies to officials also applies to workers.
I agree it's quite harsh for workers who do this for fun, but we all know that the government is having problem combatting gambling addiction, so they set a good example by restricting their own. Anyway, this government is not good at implementation, so there's a probability that it's not going to be effective.

Why would you think the policy won't be effective?
 At least it would reduce the numbers of gamblers that work in government offices and expose those who are using gambling activities to launder funds or are addicted or have insider information that may be useful in a market like the predictions market to make profit.
Am sure the Asian continent is definitely stepping up to crackdown on gambling activities that is tearing through the fabrics of their economy and adding to the corruption ongoing, like what we witnessed in Thailand where a top government official's son was involved in a big gambling scandal and this shamed both the country and his parents, mostly his Dad who is trying to do good in his own way with his position of power.

[mirakal]

Why would you think the policy won't be effective?

If you are a Philippine citizen, you will understand what he said. It’s not really effective, or to be fair, maybe just less effective, because the government is often better at creating laws than actually implementing them properly. Sometimes they even come up with the wrong policies just to boost their record and make it look like they are doing their job.

Just look at what happened recently. They even mistook the Bitcointalk forum as a source of illegal investment and gambling sites, and they ended up blocking it.

[Sanitough]

Just look at what happened recently. They even mistook the Bitcointalk forum as a source of illegal investment and gambling sites, and they ended up blocking it.

That really showed the incompetence of the people sitting in those positions, especially the SEC, NTC, and the other agencies that led to that decision. Nothing was really lost on our part since we can still easily use VPN or TOR, but I still can’t imagine how naive they are for banning something that is not even an investment or gambling platform. And yet the more important issue, like the flood control mess that caused the loss of billions of pesos because of corruption, seems to be slowly being forgotten.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Just look at what happened recently. They even mistook the Bitcointalk forum as a source of illegal investment and gambling sites, and they ended up blocking it.

That really showed the incompetence of the people sitting in those positions, especially the SEC, NTC, and the other agencies that led to that decision. Nothing was really lost on our part since we can still easily use VPN or TOR, but I still can’t imagine how naive they are for banning something that is not even an investment or gambling platform. And yet the more important issue, like the flood control mess that caused the loss of billions of pesos because of corruption, seems to be slowly being forgotten.

On the contrary, what really makes them ban this community though? Is someone from those agencies monitoring this or just a insider saying that bitcointalk is a gambling site. If the later is the case then something is wrong with the current administration.

As I understand they ban exchanges too. Now they come up with this kind of policies that should have been implemented many years ago and not just now. So it's really like the government is on a damage control here and the first thing they want to do is to curb or control gambling itself. But then they allowed casinos to freely established themselves as I believed that there are a lot of big traditional casinos that operate there.

[Hispo]

Gambling addiction in the Philippines must be a serious problem at all levels of society if they government decided to take this drastic move in order to keep it's institutions uncorrupted.
On one hand, this feels like an attack to personal freedoms of people in Philippines who happen to have a public job/public position, as they are being told on what they are allowed to spend their money and time. On the other hand, this is a measure which could improve the prestige and standards of the public administration of Philippines, though at a big cost.

It would be the equivalent to demand public workers not to smoke or drink alcohol. I have encountered feelings about this decision, mostly negative, someone who does not have power or access to public money should not face these restrictions.

If gambling in the Philippines is such a serious problem, then why only government workers got ban on gambling? I dont think that number of government workers is greater than number of all other workers that ban would make a result. On the other hand, why only government workers got such attention? Are they better or worse than other people? Or among them are most desperate gamblers?

From the common narrative on the internet and also in other societies where gambling is allowed, it is common to have the stigma against public workers (when compared to private workers) because it is immediately assumed public workers will have access to public money, so gamblers within the public management of the state have to face that stereotype upon them, even if they do not manage any money directly.
Essencially, the common uninformed person believes that the more gamblers there are within public administration, the more corrupt the government is.

In the eyes of people, a private company going bankrupt because of gambler employees is not so serious when it is compared to having gamblers working for the government.

[Rruchi man]

Do you guys think this is too much? Just a reminder that these people are not Government officials, they are workers, so they don't hold power in the government like government officials do.

Well, it becomes a big matter of choice and a decision for you, if you want to remain a government worker, you have to choose to stop or quit gambling to retain your government job or become a private businessperson so you can continue your gambling activity.

There are already some things government workers are prohibited from doing; this just adds to the list. Anybody that pays you has power over you, and that is just it.

[fullfitlarry]

Do you guys think this is too much? Just a reminder that these people are not Government officials, they are workers, so they don't hold power in the government like government officials do.

Well, it becomes a big matter of choice and a decision for you, if you want to remain a government worker, you have to choose to stop or quit gambling to retain your government job or become a private businessperson so you can continue your gambling activity.

There are already some things government workers are prohibited from doing; this just adds to the list. Anybody that pays you has power over you, and that is just it.

I have a family member that works on PAGCOR and he says that they are barred from going to casinos although there were instance that we will go and he will just stay outside, or just go inside but not play.

That's why I know that this is mandatory to all government workers in the Philippines. And for those who are not aware of, In The Know: Gov’t officials playing at gambling casinos.