PAGCOR tightens regulations for Philippine online gambling industry
Philippine gambling regulator PAGCOR has pledged to roll out tighter restrictions for the country’s online gambling industry.
At a Senate Committee on Games and Amusement hearing, PAGCOR Chairman Alejandro Tengco, said that although gambling advertisements are already banned during primetime television and radio hours, regulators were studying whether to extend the ban across all broadcast hours.
According to the Philippines News Agency, PAGCOR has also strengthened know-your-customer requirements.
The Head of the Electronic Gaming Licensing Department at PAGCOR, Jessa Mariz Fernandez, said operators had to request initial identity verification before players could deposit funds.
New players now must submit their name, contact details, a valid government-issued ID, and a real-time selfie with the ID. The changes are aimed at preventing the use of fake or borrowed identities, a concern raised in previous Senate hearings.
Additionally, PAGCOR is working with the Ads Standards Council on new rules for gambling promotions on social media and other online platforms, with illegal ads already being reported and blocked.
The regulator also plans to expand its safer gaming program in the next few weeks, with a new 24/7 confidential helpline, self-exclusion tools, and accredited treatment centers.
In response, the Chair of the Senate Committee, Erwin Tulfo, said stronger oversight is now a matter of consumer protection, digital safety, and safeguarding the financial system
The announcement comes after Tengco spoke at ICE Barcelona last month, confirming that igaming growth in the country had exposed regulatory gaps that needed to be addressed.
Charlotte Capewell brings her passion for storytelling and expertise in writing, researching, and the gambling industry to every article she writes. Her specialties include the US gambling industry, regulator legislation, igaming, and more.
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The Backstory
Why regulators are moving now
Philippine regulators have been tightening the screws on online gambling for more than a year as digital play outpaced the country’s compliance framework. Long before this latest Senate hearing, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) was publicly arguing that stronger rules — not a blanket prohibition — were the pragmatic path to protect consumers and preserve tax revenues. In a televised interview, Chairman Alejandro Tengco said the agency drew roughly PHP50 billion from online operations in 2024 and outlined plans to deploy artificial intelligence to spot risky behavior, enforce self-exclusion and bolster age checks. He also flagged a coming pact with the Ad Standards Council to curb aggressive marketing and prime-time TV placements. That position was set out in detail when PAGCOR called for stricter online gambling rules after a lawmaker proposed a full ban, casting the agency’s strategy as the middle ground between economic contribution and consumer safeguards.
The core challenge PAGCOR identified then remains central today: a large offshore gray market serving Filipinos, often without age gates, tax compliance or know-your-customer controls. Tengco has said that more than half the sites targeting locals are illegal and that enforcement is a “cat-and-mouse” chase as domains rebrand and resurface. That diagnosis underpins the regulator’s push to harden KYC, restrict payment channels prone to misuse and intensify ad oversight — the very measures now extending to identity checks before deposits, broader ad curbs and a 24/7 helpline.
Payments squeeze and a sudden shock to volumes
The most consequential lever to date has been payments. After the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas directed e-wallets to sever in-app connections to gambling sites, PAGCOR reported a dramatic and immediate drop in traffic. Tengco told lawmakers that online gaming transactions fell by 50% in a single day after the cutoffs took effect, while restating support for tougher rules and an updated manual to close regulatory gaps. The agency’s compliance unit, he added, fields about 2,000 monthly complaints, with more than 60% linked to unlicensed operators. Those data points surfaced when PAGCOR detailed the initial fallout and enforcement landscape in a briefing covered in online gambling transactions fall 50% after e-wallet restrictions.
The payments crackdown is not a one-off. PAGCOR has since delinked e-wallets and barred credit cards and cryptocurrencies for wagers to reduce anonymous or leveraged play and improve traceability. It has framed these curbs as essential to align with global standards, even as the moves require operators and players to retool how money flows into and out of platforms. The regulator has acknowledged short-term friction — and softer revenue — but says the tradeoff is necessary to make licensed channels safer and more defensible against illegal competition.
Operator unease over unintended consequences
Industry leaders have warned that indiscriminate payments and marketing bans risk backfiring. At a Manila expo, Casino Plus executive Evan Spytma argued that cutting off mainstream e-wallets like GCash and Maya — which already require KYC — could push casual players into unregulated offshore sites with weaker protections. He said the inability to market clearly compounds the confusion, making it harder for players to distinguish licensed Philippine Inland Gaming Operators (PIGOs) from illegal platforms. That critique came during a panel in which suppliers also noted the heavy lift to retrofit platforms for regulated play with deposit limits and other controls, as reported in industry warns Philippine regulator against overregulation.
PAGCOR has publicly recognized the adjustment costs while urging licensees to stay the course. Tengco has praised operators for honoring stricter standards despite near-term revenue pressure, calling integrity the bedrock of long-run sustainability. He cited a temporary dip in industry gross gaming revenue tied to the e-wallet delinkings in August and September but said e-games and e-bingo still grew year over year, underscoring the sector’s resilience. His remarks and the industry response are recapped in PAGCOR Chairman commends Philippine licensees for resilience amid tightening regulation.
Responsible gaming takes center stage
Beyond payments, PAGCOR has been methodically building out a responsible gaming architecture. The regulator now requires self-exclusion tools and betting limits across licensed platforms and has expanded support services by partnering with the Seagulls Flock Organization to run a round-the-clock helpline, train responsible gaming ambassadors and accredit treatment facilities. It has prohibited credit cards and cryptocurrencies for betting to curb harmful borrowing and speculative behavior. Marketing rules were tightened after a formal tie-up with the Ad Standards Council, which removed gambling promotions from public spaces and raised the bar for accuracy and disclosure.
These measures are part of a broader shift Tengco describes as aligning the Philippines with international best practices while maintaining regulatory agility. He has emphasized that the sector will need iterative refinements as new risks emerge, from AI-driven player monitoring to stricter age verification. The full scope of that program and its early revenue impact are laid out in PAGCOR tightens responsible gaming rules as online play accelerates, which details the delinking of certain payment channels, tighter advertising rules and coordination across treatment networks.
What the new rules aim to solve — and what’s next
The through line connecting these moves is a bid to shrink the illicit market’s appeal, fortify consumer safeguards and protect the financial system. Identity checks before deposits, bans on high-risk payment instruments, and stricter ad standards are meant to raise the floor on licensed operations while starving unlicensed sites of local reach and easy money flows. The sharp reduction in transactions after e-wallet restrictions suggests how influential payments policy can be in steering behavior, for better or worse.
Still, the risk of displacement looms. If compliant operators lose convenient, trusted channels to onboard and serve players, offshore platforms may fill the gap. That is why PAGCOR has paired restrictions with investments in monitoring tech, expanded helplines and clearer standards — and why it continues to call for collaboration with other agencies and the ad industry. The regulator’s own data underscores the stakes: thousands of monthly complaints and a persistent illegal ecosystem that reconstitutes quickly after takedowns.
In the months ahead, watch for how fast licensed platforms adapt to new KYC flows, how ad rules evolve beyond broadcast into social media, and whether AI tools deliver credible, fair interventions without overreach. Equally important will be whether payments policy settles into a stable posture that keeps legal play traceable and safe without pushing users to shadow markets. The regulator’s message to lawmakers and licensees has been consistent: tightening rules is part of a long-term effort to modernize oversight, preserve tax contributions and keep the industry on a sustainable path — even if the transition is bumpy.
