In his 2024 State of the Nation Address, Philippine President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr electrified the nation with his ban on crime-ridden Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs).
Opponents of online gambling hoped Marcos would make a similar declaration in this year’s address on Monday. He disappointed them, making no reference to the issue or recent calls to abolish the industry.
On 7 July, lawmakers filed two online gambling bills, one to tighten regulations and another to prohibit iGaming altogether.
House Bill 1351 would impose a 10% tax on iGaming revenue and use the proceeds to fund problem gambling resources. It would bar most iGaming ads, ban the use of e-wallets and place restrictions on credit card deposits. The legislation would require iGaming operators to identify and discourage risky gambling behaviour and limit games to adults under 21.
Senate Bill 142 would go much further, banning all digital gambling platforms. “We already shut the doors on POGOs for the damage they caused,” said Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, the bill’s sponsor. “But an even more dangerous problem has crept into our homes: online gambling that targets our own people.
“Let’s not kid ourselves. It now looks like a kid with a phone under the covers at 2am, losing the family’s grocery money on an online casino site.”
Online gambling: To be or not to be?
Marcos’ silence on the matter could indicate he doesn’t support an all-out ban of the industry, which generated gross gaming revenue of PHP154.51 billion ($2.7 billion) in 2024, up 165% year-on-year. Even Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who led the fight to ban POGOs, supports regulation over prohibition.
Online gambling “has caused an increase in mental health problems, financial problems, addictive behavior, vices and crime rates”, Gatchalian said on 1 July.
Neverthless, he backs measures to keep the industry in check, ending gambling sponsorships of public events and campaign donations by online operators. Gatchalian has also called for an investigation of online lending apps that have the potential to plunge online gamblers deeper into debt.
Meanwhile, three Philippines casino operators that offer both land-based and online gambling say they “actively promote responsible gaming through tools such as self-exclusion, deposit limits and account restrictions”.
According to the GMA Network, Solaire, Newport and Okada say they fully comply with existing regulations, from licensing and accreditation to anti-money laundering, along with advertising policies, data privacy and so on. They said they each have allocated 2% of GGR for public development projects.
“Prohibition does not erase online gaming,” they said in a statement. “It only erases the safeguards that protect the Filipino people.”
Marcos sidesteps sensitive issue
Political analyst Froilan Calilung told the Manila Times he hoped Marcos would ban online gambling in his annual address and “put an end to these operations [which are] creating a lot of moral and social problems for our countrymen”.
Senator Raffy Tulfo had also hoped Marcos would declare himself on the issue.
“Something has to be done. I want a total stop – not just regulation,” he told TV News 5. Zubiri, sponsor of Senate Bill 142, also looked for clues to Marcos’ plan in Monday’s address, “similar to how we banned e-sabong, similar how we banned POGOs.”
But Marcos stayed mum and a Philippine gaming attorney said that’s the right posture for now.
Attorney: President’s silence a sign of leadership
In an op-ed post shared on LinkedIn, Marie Antoinette Quiogue of the Romulo law firm said the president “will make headlines not for what he said about online gambling, but for what he didn’t”.
“The president chose not to declare a position” on the proposed ban, she wrote. “And in this case, restraint is leadership. The president’s silence signalled a refusal to be rushed into a decision on a complex issue that demands more data, deeper study and a holistic understanding. This was not a missed opportunity. It was a conscious choice to avoid a knee-jerk policy that could create more problems than it solves.”
She said the online gambling sector should not be confused with POGOs. Those operations served gamblers outside the Philippines. They were banned following reports of widespread corruption, money laundering, human trafficking and torture. “In the case of POGOs, the safety of Filipinos and national security were directly implicated,” said Quiogue. “That is not the case here.
“If a sitting president can suddenly announce that a lawful, revenue-generating industry can simply be banned, the implications on investor confidence, economic stability and the rule of law would be profound.”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said nothing about online gambling in Monday’s State of the Nation Address, although he has promised to consider calls for a total iGaming ban.