Philippine President Marcos officially signed the "Anti-Offshore Gaming Act" on October 29, 2025, which completely bans POGO operations, but subsequently new forms such as PIGO, special zone i-gaming, and cloud gaming emerged. These changes reveal deep-seated dependency issues in the gambling industry, involving local fiscal pressures, international capital infiltration, and political interest balancing. Despite the legal ban, actual implementation faces challenges such as shell operation changes, technological circumvention, and institutional challenges, reflecting the Philippines' long-term dependence on gambling revenue and the complexity of regulation.
The Emergence and Operation of New Gambling Forms
After the bill was signed, the Philippine gambling industry quickly saw three alternative forms: PIGO (Philippine Inland Gaming Operators) introduced by PAGCOR, limited to local servers and users but actually operated by the former POGO team with similar technical architecture, involving a $120 million fund transfer case in August 2025; special zone i-gaming in specific areas under the guise of "technical support" allows foreign companies to operate through shell operations, evading central regulation and alleviating local fiscal pressures; cloud gaming uses international waters servers, VPNs, and cryptocurrencies to achieve decentralization, with about 12,000 illegal websites nationwide drawing over $50 million per month, with former POGO employees moving underground. These forms continue the POGO model in terms of technology, capital flows, and regulatory loopholes.
Political Economic Background and Interest Games
The ban is backed by multiple interest games: local powers demand central compromise with the risk of fiscal collapse, such as a $200 million tax loss in the Clark area, forcing special zone licensing; international capital such as the Las Vegas Group in the US takes over high-end customers through cooperation, data linked to the US military network, promoting de-Sinicization; the Marcos government balances China-US relations, exchanging the ban for Chinese investment cooperation and US security support. In political cleansing, former government-related enterprises are held by proxies and restructured, with new licenses leaning towards allies, forming a "change of hands, not disks" situation.
Social Impact and Institutional Challenges
Citizens and senators question the effectiveness of the ban, demanding disclosure of the Marcos family assets, pointing to shares in PIGO license companies held by his confidants. The dependency on the gambling industry reflects economic structural problems: weak agriculture, thin manufacturing, gambling becoming a quick source of income. Senators point out that systemic greed is the fundamental problem, leading to formalized regulation. Technological upgrades in underground gambling exacerbate enforcement difficulties, cloud gaming servers are hard to track, highlighting the disconnect between law and reality.
