The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas issued Memorandum Circular 2022-026 on May 27, 2022, directing bank-supervised financial institutions to deal only with gambling or online gaming businesses authorized by the government, according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government1. The circular told those institutions to remove e-sabong operators from the merchant lists in their online applications, naming e-wallets such as G-Cash and PayMaya1.
The BSP also required the institutions to tell clients with funds still sitting in e-sabong accounts to move the money back to their e-wallets within 30 days of the memorandum's issuance, after which links to all e-sabong accounts and e-wallets, including e-sabong merchant operator accounts, would be disabled1.
The order followed President Rodrigo Duterte's instruction to stop all e-sabong operations, given during his May 2 Talk to the People program that aired on May 3, on the DILG's recommendation after a nationwide survey showed a majority did not want e-sabong to continue1. The President cited gambling addiction and the disappearance of several cockfighting enthusiasts1.
DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said the payment block would hold even if operators or bettors moved underground.
"This means that even if operators or bettors go underground, they cannot bet through Gcash and Paymaya anymore."
The DILG also pressed Facebook to act against illegal e-sabong promotion. Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya wrote to Meta, Facebook's parent company, asking it to block pages, groups and accounts encouraging illegal e-sabong across its platforms and subsidiaries, and submitted a list of seven Facebook pages, groups and accounts identified by the PNP Anti-Cyber Crime Group as catering to illegal e-sabong1.
What it means for players
For anyone who bet on e-sabong through a Philippine e-wallet, the practical effect was a payment cutoff rather than a change to the games themselves. Funds left in an e-sabong account had to be returned to the player's e-wallet within 30 days of the May 27, 2022 circular, after which the links between e-sabong accounts and e-wallets were to be disabled1. The DILG's position was that betting through G-Cash and PayMaya would no longer be possible even for operators or bettors who continued outside the licensed system1. The circular's wording covers gambling and online gaming businesses generally, requiring supervised institutions to deal only with those authorized by the government1. How the 30-day window was enforced in practice, and whether every operator returned balances, has not been reported.
What happens next
The DILG said it had asked Meta to suspend or block the seven listed Facebook pages, groups and accounts, and said it looked forward to cooperation on implementing the ban on illegal e-sabong1. No response from Meta or Facebook is recorded in the DILG statement, and no date was given for when the pages would be removed1.
For background on the games and the payment rules involved, see Sabong: Cockfight Betting in the Philippines, E-Sabong: Online Cockfight Betting and Its Legal Status, Gambling Payments in Asia and Why Your Gambling Deposit Was Declined.
