The Chairman and CEO of Philippine gaming regulator PAGCOR, Alejandro H. Tengco, said in a Tuesday statement to media that any ban on Internet Gaming Licensees (IGLs), previously known as POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators), could cause bigger problems by driving legitimate operators underground.
“If this happens, it would become harder for us to monitor them and the number of illegal operators would grow and pose a bigger headache to our law enforcement authorities,” Tengco said by way of an official PAGCOR release and in response to calls from some senators for the industry to be shut down.
“On top of these, the government will lose potential revenues of more than Php20 billion (US$341 million) annually, without any guarantee that illegal activities will stop.
Tengco added that the likely scenario following any ban would be for legitimate operators to take their gaming and computer equipment with them and set up shop without government monitoring and supervision.
“We have no guarantee that, once we ban the legitimate operators, they will simply close shop and return to their countries of origin where they are likely to face prosecution and jail, or worse,” he said.
“So, they will just go underground here in the Philippines and continue operating. Worse, they could join those who are engaged in illegal activities like scamming, hacking and other cybercrimes, which would cause bigger problems to us. Once they are underground, we lose control over them.”
While Tengco said PAGCOR will respect whatever decision Congress ultimately makes on the issue, he reiterated his belief that licensed IGLs are not the problem.
“The real problem are the criminal syndicates masquerading as POGOs,” he said. “It is only through intensified law enforcement and the cooperation of all sectors that we would be able to address the problem of criminality.”
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