Philippine president declares total ban on POGOs

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. declared a total ban on Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) in his 2024 State of the Nation Address, saying they generated more costs than benefits for the country¹. Operators were given until December 31, 2024 to cease operations². The ban followed congressional hearings that linked POGOs to violent crime, money laundering, disinformation operations and espionage by transnational entities that allegedly included China¹.

At their peak there were about 300 POGOs in the country, reduced to just 42 by the pandemic and tighter government regulations¹. Economists said the industry generated 0.2% of the country's gross domestic product¹. Official figures cited by the Department of Finance, drawing on PAGCOR and Department of Labor and Employment data, put POGO employment at 66,547 as of 2023, of whom 41,347 were foreign nationals and 25,200 Filipinos³.

The government moved in stages. On November 5, 2024, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin signed Executive Order No. 74, which ordered the immediate ban on all POGOs or Internet Gaming Licensees and offshore gaming operations, banned new license applications and renewals, and created two technical working groups: one for employment recovery and reintegration, chaired by PAGCOR, and one on anti-illegal offshore gaming operations, chaired by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission². Foreign POGO workers were given until October 15, 2024 to downgrade their 9G work visas to tourist visas, a status allowing a 59-day legal stay to work³. The Bureau of Immigration said 21,757 foreign workers had filed for downgrading, of whom 10,821 had left the country³.

Enforcement continued after the deadline. In a raid on a resort on the central island of Cebu, authorities arrested more than 150 foreign nationals and found 162 foreign nationals at a hotel, including 83 from China, 70 Indonesians, six from Myanmar, one Malaysian and two from Taiwan, according to the local newspaper Cebu Daily News⁴. Winston Casio of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission said authorities discovered "at least three scam farms" run by Chinese, Indonesian and Myanmar nationals⁴.

On October 23, 2025, Marcos signed Republic Act No. 12312, the Anti-POGO Act of 2025, which bans and declares illegal all offshore gaming operations and related activities, cancels the work permits and visas of everyone engaged in them, and holds revoked operators liable for taxes, duties and regulatory fees up to their last day of operations⁶. The law prohibits recruiting, hiring, transporting or harboring any Filipino or foreign national for offshore gaming work, and creates an Administrative Oversight Committee chaired by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission⁶.

What it means for players

The ban targets offshore operators that served customers abroad, mainly in China, where gambling is illegal⁷. It does not close the Philippines' licensed domestic gambling sector. PAGCOR, the regulator directly under the president's office, projected record gross gaming revenue of more than 350 billion pesos ($6.03 billion) for 2024, up from 285 billion pesos the previous year, driven by electronic gaming, and said it was on track to revoke all offshore gaming licenses by year-end⁷. Manila's integrated casino resorts, owned by companies including Japan's Universal Entertainment Corp and Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd, continue to attract high rollers from China, Japan, South Korea and other countries⁷. For players in the Philippines, the practical change is that offshore-facing online operations are illegal and their licenses revoked; the status of domestic licensed casinos and electronic gaming is unchanged in these accounts. The law also cancels work visas tied to the sector, which affects foreign nationals who were employed by POGOs rather than betting with them⁶.

What happens next

The Anti-POGO Act tasks the Department of Labor and Employment with programs to assist Filipino workers displaced by the ban⁶. The Administrative Oversight Committee is to maintain a real-time, interoperable information-sharing system among agencies and pursue speedy investigation and prosecution⁶. PAGCOR and the Bureau of Internal Revenue were ordered to speed up collection of taxes and fees related to the industry². No further dated steps have been reported.