The Supreme Court of the Philippines dismissed all petitions against Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) in April 2023, ending a challenge that had been filed as early as 2017. The court ruled on procedural grounds, saying the petitioners did not follow the proper hierarchy of courts1. The decision avoided the constitutional question at the center of the case, as the court had done on several occasions before1.
Good governance advocates had gone to the Supreme Court in 2017 to void POGOs, arguing that the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) had no authority to create and regulate online gambling1. Gaming is legal in the Philippines under Republic Act 9487, the amended version of earlier laws that created Pagcor and authorized it to regulate gaming and gambling. Offshore gaming was not mentioned anywhere in that law1. Pagcor, under its former chief Andrea Domingo, created POGOs in September 2016, the same period in which then president Rodrigo Duterte was criticizing online gaming in his speeches1. By February 2017, Duterte issued Executive Order No. 13, which "clarified" online gaming jurisdictions1.
The Cagayan Economic Zone Authority has blamed EO 13 for the multi-layered design of offshore gaming that criminal sub-licensees later exploited1. Without a court ban, POGOs were set up and thrived under Duterte1. The sector was later linked to criminal activity. The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. intensified its crackdown on what it called illegal POGOs, meaning hubs that held a POGO license, later renamed an Internet Gaming License or IGL, but were operating something else, often a scam hub with criminal activities such as torture and prostitution1.
The investigation intensified after the PAOCC raided Hongsheng Gaming Technology Inc. in Bamban, Tarlac in February 20231. A year later, in February 2024, the PAOCC received information that a Vietnamese national had escaped from a POGO called Zun Yuan Technology Inc., located in the same compound as Hongsheng1. A raid on that compound uncovered evidence of torture and scamming, and documents naming then Bamban mayor Alice Guo1. Investigators found that Guo had incorporated the real estate firm Baofu in 2019, which leased the compound to POGOs1. Government agencies concluded that Alice Guo is the Chinese national Guo Ha Ping1. Guo is currently detained at the Pasig City Female Dormitory over non-bailable human trafficking charges1.
What it means for players
The April 2023 ruling left POGOs operating under Pagcor licenses without a court order voiding them, so offshore gaming continued in the Philippines in the period that followed1. POGOs serve customers betting online, largely from outside the Philippines, rather than walk-in players at a venue. The ruling did not address whether offshore gaming is constitutional, and the court has not settled that question1. For people gambling in the Philippines, the legal basis for land-based and online gaming remains Republic Act 9487, which authorized Pagcor to regulate gaming and gambling and does not mention offshore gaming1. The status of POGO and IGL operations has since been affected by other developments, including a ban reported separately.
What happens next
The Supreme Court's April 2023 dismissal closed the petitions on procedural grounds, and the sources do not report any further constitutional challenge to POGOs. The sources also do not report any scheduled court dates or rulings on the constitutionality of offshore gaming. Rappler states that it continues to follow and investigate the POGO issue1.
Sources1 sources
- The saga of POGOs and Alice Guo, rappler.com
