Executive Order No. 74 orders immediate POGO ban

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed into law a measure banning and declaring illegal all offshore gaming operations (Pogos) in the Philippines and other related activities¹. The bill, Republic Act No. 12312, also known as the Anti-Pogo Act of 2025, was signed by Marcos on October 23¹. Under the law, the work permits and visas of all individuals engaged in offshore gaming operations, or employed by Pogos, Pogo gaming content providers and Pogo-accredited service providers, are declared canceled¹.

The ban followed Marcos's announcement in his third State of the Nation Address in 2024 that all POGOs would be officially banned, with operators given until the end of that year to cease operations¹. Months later, on November 5, Executive Order No. 74 was issued ordering the immediate ban of all POGOs in the country, citing national security threat as one of the reasons¹. The order also stopped all applications or renewal of licenses, permits and authorizations, citing national security and public order as the primary concerns, and ordered the creation of a Technical Working Group on Anti-illegal Offshore Gaming Operations and a separate TWG for employment recovery and reintegration³.

The phaseout had already cut the industry sharply before the law was signed. The number of offshore gambling firms still operating in the country had gone down to 17 by December 2024, from a peak of 298 licensed Pogos in 2019 and 48 in early 2024, according to Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. chair and CEO Alejandro Tengco³.

The law keeps revoked operators liable for money owed. All Pogos, Pogo gaming content providers, Pogo-accredited service providers and Pogo local gaming agents whose licenses have been revoked "shall continue to be liable for all taxes, duties, regulatory fees, and all other charges up to the last day of their operations, which are due and payable to the government arising from or in connection to their operations"¹. Any act, omission, series, or combination of violations constitutes an "unlawful activity" under Republic Act No. 9160, the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001¹.

The law also prohibits any person or entity from "recruiting, obtaining, hiring, providing, offering, transporting, transferring, maintaining, harboring, or receiving any Filipino or foreign national" for employment in offshore gaming operations in the country¹. The Department of Labor and Employment has been tasked to formulate and implement programs to assist in the transition of all Filipino workers affected by the ban¹. An Administrative Oversight Committee will be created to enforce the law, chaired by the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, with the Department of Justice, the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the Department of the Interior and Local Government as members¹. The committee was given authority to ensure a real-time and interoperable information-sharing system among agencies concerned, and speedy investigation and prosecution of all persons accused or detained, among others¹.

What it means for players

Offshore operators that served customers in mainland China from the Philippines are now illegal under Philippine law, and the licenses of the remaining firms were canceled at the end of December 2024³. Tengco said that from the start of 2025, operators that continued to run, either elsewhere or in the different provinces, are deemed illegal already³. The law reaches employment as well as operations: recruiting, hiring, transporting or harboring any Filipino or foreign national for offshore gaming work in the country is prohibited¹, and work permits and visas tied to the sector are canceled¹. Players who used Pogo platforms should note that the law treats violations as unlawful activity under the Anti-Money Laundering Act¹. The Philippines' regulated domestic gambling sector, including Pagcor-licensed casinos, is a separate matter from the Pogo ban; the sources do not say the law affects domestic licensed gambling. See Can I Gamble in the Philippines? and The Philippines' Ban on Offshore Gaming (POGOs) for the current position, and Online Gambling in Asia: The Law for Players in 12 Jurisdictions for how the region treats offshore sites.

What happens next

The Administrative Oversight Committee is to be created to enforce the ban, with powers over inter-agency information sharing and the investigation and prosecution of accused or detained persons¹. The Department of Labor and Employment is to formulate and implement transition programs for affected Filipino workers¹. No dates for the committee's establishment or for the transition programs have been reported.