Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) is the official designation for firms operating in the Philippines which offer online gambling services to markets outside the Philippines.

Background

Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators or POGOs are online gambling firms that operate in the Philippines but cater to customers outside the country. To operate legally they must be licensed by the

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR, ) is a government-owned and controlled corporation established through the ''Presidential Decree 1869''. PAGCOR is the Philippines' largest contributor of revenue to the government after the ...

(PAGCOR). They are obliged to restrict any individual in the Philippines regardless of citizenship, Filipino citizens regardless of location, and potential patrons in countries and territories where offshore gambling is illegal from availing their services; failure to do so risks license revocation. PAGCOR started the processing of license applications for POGOs in 2016 after it decided not to renew the license of local online gambling firm

PhilWeb The PhilWeb Corporation is a Philippine internet company involved in the gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else ...

in an effort to boost its revenue. There are three license categories. Category 1 involves services that have live streaming with women online gambling dealers. Category 2 and 3 are sub-sectors of

business process outsourcing Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

(BPO) which provide back office support. However, the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), an umbrella industry group of BPOs, do not consider POGOs in general as BPOs. IBPAP's members are registered with either the

Philippine Economic Zone Authority Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is a government agency in the Philippines attached to the Department of Trade and Industry created to help promote investments in the export-oriented manufacturing industry into the country by assisting ...

or the Board of Investments while POGOs get their license to operate from PAGCOR, a fact the group argues differentiate POGOs from BPOs.

Prevalence

There are 56 PAGCOR-licensed POGOs as of June 9, 2019. It is estimated that at least 30 firms are operating in the Philippines illegally. KMC Savills Inc. projects that POGOs have utilized at least of office space. While a significant portion of the Philippine offshore gambling industry cater to the Chinese, some serve the Korean and Vietnamese markets.

Employment

There are 138,000 foreigners employed by POGOs as of May 2019, with 83,760 of them holders of special work permits allowing them to stay in the country for at most six months. Only 17 percent of those employed in POGOs are Filipino nationals. Employment decreased significantly during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

References

{{reflist Gambling in the Philippines Online gambling

Background

Prevalence

Employment

See also

References