Philippines permanently banning offshore gaming

The Philippines has slammed the door on offshore gambling—once and for all.

With the signing of Republic Act 12312, or the Anti-POGO Act of 2025, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has permanently outlawed the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) industry. The move follows years of scandals involving fraud, trafficking, and money-laundering.

From my professional view, this is a landmark in Asia’s regulatory transformation. It signals that integrity now outweighs short-term revenue in Philippine gambling policy.

Let’s unpack what the law does, what triggered it, and what this means for gaming investors and regulators worldwide.

Key Points

• Republic Act 12312 (Anti-POGO Act) permanently bans offshore gaming operations in the Philippines.
• All POGO licences, work permits and visas are voided immediately.
• Violators face prison terms and escalating fines for repeat offences.
• Offshore gambling is now an “unlawful act” under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.
• The law repeals PAGCOR’s authority to issue or tax offshore gaming licences.
• The Department of Labour must retrain displaced workers and mitigate economic fallout.
• The measure codifies Marcos’s 2024 executive order, ensuring no future reinstatement.

Philippines Shuts Down Offshore Gaming for Good: Inside the Anti-POGO Act of 2025

For years, the Philippines balanced its image as Southeast Asia’s casino hub with a shadowy side: the rise of POGOs. These offshore gaming operators, originally welcomed as tax-generating tech firms, soon became synonymous with cyber-fraud, human trafficking, and organised-crime syndicates linked to mainland China.

In late October 2025, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ended the debate. By signing Republic Act 12312, he converted last year’s executive directive into binding law. Every POGO licence is cancelled. No renewal, no loopholes, no grey-area “consultancy” model will be tolerated.

The law’s text goes further than expected. It embeds POGO activity under the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Act, giving the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police, and the AMLC direct jurisdiction to pursue operators, affiliates and payment processors tied to illegal gambling flows.

From my analytical lens, this is not merely prohibition—it is regulatory repositioning. The Philippines is recasting its gambling identity from permissive tax haven to compliance-driven jurisdiction.

Why Now?

After the 2024 POGO raids revealed links to cyber-fraud parks and human-smuggling rings, Marcos said the industry brought “more harm than good.” International partners, including China and the Financial Action Task Force, had also pressured Manila to clean up lingering AML weaknesses.

The Anti-POGO Act therefore achieves several policy goals:

1. Aligning with FATF compliance standards, helping the Philippines avoid renewed “grey-list” scrutiny.
2. Protecting labour and migration integrity by ending worker exploitation in POGO compounds.
3. Restoring public confidence in the country’s gaming sector, which remains robust through regulated domestic casinos.

Economic & Social Fallout

Roughly 23,000 workers—mostly Filipino support staff and foreign IT specialists—will be affected. The Department of Labour and Employment has been ordered to launch retraining programs for digital-skills redeployment, echoing how Macau and Singapore pivoted post-COVID casino reforms.

Critics argue that PAGCOR could lose hundreds of millions in annual tax revenue. However, officials counter that unreported criminal activity and reputational damage far outweighed fiscal benefits.

My Take on the Bigger Picture

From a regulatory standpoint, this law is the ultimate hard reset. The Philippines once pioneered Asia’s hybrid offshore model—taxing foreign wagers while policing local play. Now, it is leading the opposite trend: drawing a bright red line between legal gaming and criminal finance.

For neighbouring markets like Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos—each struggling with offshore-gaming oversight—the Anti-POGO Act could serve as a regional precedent. The industry’s migration from Manila may fuel new licensing waves elsewhere, but without equivalent controls, history could repeat itself.

By enacting the Anti-POGO Act of 2025, the Philippines has decisively closed a controversial chapter in its gambling history. The law cements President Marcos Jr.’s stance that national reputation, security, and regulatory integrity outweigh the short-term economic appeal of offshore gaming.

As I see it, this move elevates the Philippines from being a cautionary tale to a potential model for post-POGO reform—where lawful gaming and responsible oversight can coexist without compromise. The message is unmistakable: in the new era of Asian iGaming, compliance is king, and credibility is currency.

Tags: PhilippinesGaming, POGOBan, AntiPOGOAct, MarcosAdministration, iGamingAsia

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