The Chairman and CEO of Philippine gaming regulator PAGCOR has revealed that licensed offshore gaming operators will no longer be known as POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) and will instead be referred to as Internet Gaming Licensees, or IGLs.
In an exclusive interview with Inside Asian Gaming at G2E in Las Vegas, Tengco outlined new details of the agency’s efforts to bring the offshore gaming industry into line, having put all POGOs under a “probationary stance” in August and requiring each to undergo a stricter probity process under a revised regulatory framework.
On the new name for offshore operators, Tengco explained, “This is the first time we are announcing this publicly, we will be using this new expression IGL from now on.”
The PAGCOR chief also provided an update to the relicensing process, revealing that the full list of newly licensed IGLs will be published at the end of October. Tengco has previously stated that the list is to include the URLs of all legal online gaming websites being operated by licensed operators.
“There will be 55 to 65 licenses issued and there will no longer be service provider licenses, it will just be an IGL license,” Tengco said.
It is unclear at this stage how service providers will be governed or if they will need to be folded directly into the IGL licensee under which they operate.
Tengco previously told attendees of the IAG Academy Summit at Hilton Manila, Newport World Resorts last month that PAGCOR would be fully transparent when it comes to its new regulatory regime for offshore licensees.
“Once we are able to offer new licenses … we will update our website and also use the print medium and social media to inform the public who the new licensees will be,” he said at the time.
“We will be making an announcement on the new licenses for offshore gaming and we will make sure the PAGCOR website will carry this new list. When we announce … who the final list of licensees will be, we will make sure this will be highlighted on the PAGCOR website.
“When it comes to the local licensees, we have a website that is very effectively informing who our legal licensees are. In this situation there are so many illegal operators in the Philippines, but we are doing everything we can to inform the public of who the legal licensees are.”
