Remaining Pogo operators deemed illegal

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) said all remaining Philippine offshore gaming operator (Pogo) licenses would be canceled by the end of December 2024, and that any operator still running from Jan. 1, 2025 is deemed illegal¹. Pagcor chair and CEO Alejandro Tengco gave the position at a forum organized by the Stratbase ADR Institute on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024¹.

Tengco said the number of offshore gambling firms still operating in the country had fallen to 17¹. He said the count had dropped from a peak of 298 licensed Pogos in 2019 to 48 in early 2024¹. He also said that before he took office in August 2024, hundreds of Pogo licenses had been placed on "probationary status" for being involved in scams, and that those permits were later deemed illegal¹.

The ban rests on Executive Order No. 74, a formal directive dated Nov. 5, 2024, which banned Pogo companies and stopped all applications or renewals of licenses, permits and authorizations, citing national security and public order as the primary concerns¹. The order also created a Technical Working Group on Anti-illegal Offshore Gaming Operations to intensify the crackdown, and a separate working group for employment recovery and reintegration¹. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had ordered gaming regulators to shut down Pogos in his State of the Nation Address in July 2024¹. The industry, which mostly employed Chinese nationals catering to punters in mainland China, had been linked to crimes including money laundering and human trafficking¹.

The phaseout also hit the property market. Colliers Philippines estimated the Pogo exodus would result in a 22.2 percent office vacancy rate by the end of 2024, with vacancy rates possibly recovering to 19 percent by 2025 and easing further to 18 percent by 2026¹.

What it means for players

The change concerns operators serving customers outside the Philippines, not the domestic casinos and other games that Pagcor regulates. From Jan. 1, 2025, an offshore operator that keeps taking bets in the Philippines is operating without a license, and Pagcor has said such operators are deemed illegal¹. For anyone in the Philippines using an offshore site, that means the operator has no Philippine license behind it, which is the situation covered in our guide to the risks of playing on unlicensed gambling sites. The wider legal position for players in the country is set out in Can I gamble in the Philippines? and in Gambling Laws in Asia. How licenses are issued and checked is covered in Gambling Regulators and Licenses in Asia, and the ban itself in The Philippines' Ban on Offshore Gaming (POGOs).

What happens next

Pagcor said all remaining licenses would be canceled by the end of December 2024¹. The two technical working groups created under Executive Order No. 74, one on anti-illegal offshore gaming operations and one on employment recovery and reintegration, are tasked with the crackdown and with helping displaced workers¹. No further dates have been reported.