Philippine gaming regulator PAGCOR is compiling a position paper that it plans to present to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) – the central bank – in a bid to have it reverse the delinking of licensed online gaming sites from e-wallet providers.
PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco revealed the plan in an exclusive interview with Inside Asian Gaming at ICE Barcelona on Tuesday, explaining that the position paper would outline the various safeguards PAGCOR has implemented across the domestic online gaming, or eGames, industry following Senate hearings held in 2025 in relation to the sector’s explosive growth.
“Before I left for Barcelona, I had already tasked a group within PAGCOR to study – after I gave them my thoughts – to put together a position paper that we can present to the Central Bank of the Philippines that hopefully will be able to explain the importance and what safeguards we have done to protect players,” Tengco told IAG. “Hopefully with that we will be able to convince them to allow linking once again of the payment providers to the eGaming operators.”
The central bank issued an order in August for e-wallet providers to unlink from online gambling platforms within 48 hours, a move it said was intended to prevent unauthorized transactions and improve monitoring of the online gaming sector. Critics of the order claim that by removing direct links to online gaming platforms, players no longer have any simple means of identifying licensed sites and are therefore more easily lured to illegal operations.
When asked by IAG on Tuesday if this was a key reason for compiling a position paper on the linking of e-wallets, Tengco added, “I think we need to show [the bank] that we have [implemented] big changes. That’s the most important thing.”
Despite the substantial impact delinking had on eGames revenues – PAGCOR recently highlighted a clear slowing of income generation in the September quarter – Tengco noted that the sector produced more than Php200 billion (US$3.37 billion) in GGR in 2025 to set a new all-time high.
“In spite of [the delinking], we set new record GGR in online gaming and that for me was a good feat in 2025,” he said.
“Now we are studying and looking to strengthen the B2B sector where we intend to license content providers, game providers and other marketing groups. We have also established a new Minimum Guaranteed Fee for online companies licensed by PAGCOR and this hopefully strengthens the industry.”
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