PlaySafe: Harms Come from Non-Pagcor-Licensed Operators

The recently formed group of 18 PAGCOR-approved operators alongside a legal advisory firm, the PlaySafe Alliance of the Philippines, has praised a recent Senate hearing discussing several bills aimed at banning or curbing licensed forms of gambling taking place online.

“Where Regulation Exists, Protection Exists”

The Alliance commended the Senate “for surfacing the central truth in its hearing”, arguing that “underage access, uncontrolled betting, and financial distress” are harms that originate from illegal platforms that do not carry the PAGCOR seal, and not from licensed operators.

The group that aims to boost responsible practices and improve player protection explained that licensed operators are supervised, audited, and sanctioned by state authorities, and that they are also required to employ Know Your Customer verifications along with specific “responsible gaming mechanisms”.

In a recent statement, the alliance spoke about the Senate’s “clean line” that states “where regulation exists, protection exists; where illegality thrives, protection vanishes”.

Toward the end of last week, senators initiated talks on implementing stricter rules, with three measures looking to ban online gambling entirely and two bills seeking tighter controls. In parallel, the Philippines’ central bank asked e-wallet providers to remove all links offering access to domestic online gambling sites, a strategy that the alliance only partially agreed to. 

While sharing the central bank’s objectives regarding “consumer protection and financial integrity,” the group believes the best solution would be to maintain legal activity “inside the regulatory perimeter with traceable, supervised payment rails”.

The PlaySafe Alliance’s statement further added that removing licensed operators’ links from online payment platforms would not effectively put an end to gambling. Still, it would instead push players “into the dark corners of the Internet where activity is untraceable” and taxes vanish. 

International money transfer service GCash, available in the Philippines, and Maya, the “#1 Digital Bank” in the country, had previously announced they would comply with the central bank’s fresh guidelines to remove in-app links.

The Need for Rules with “Real Teeth”

The Senate Committee on Games and Amusement’s chairman, Erwin Tulfo, believes the battle against online gambling is now even more difficult with companies shifting their operations to mobile apps. 

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who proposed one of the measures currently being considered by the Senate, explained that stricter laws for online gambling were crucial for “dismantling underground operations and protecting Filipinos from the dangers of online gambling”.

“It’s time to have stricter regulations that have real teeth.”, he added, saying simple bans would simply not suffice.