ICYMI: Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) Are Now Banned!


Have you noticed that, after the ban, the scam texts and calls disappeared along with it?

On the latest SONA, president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. announced something quite unprecedented. POGOs are now forever banned in the Philippines! This ban also might have an effect to the scam texts we’ve been receiving everyday since the SIM Registration Law got enacted.

If you aren’t a Filipino, POGOs, short for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, are supposedly legal online gambling that operate in the Philippines but do not cater to Filipinos typically. Usually, these are gambling operators that originate from China as any form of gambling there is outlawed.

POGOs were incarnated under the tenure of the previous president, Rodrigo Duterte. However, critics accuse them as being state-backed and is a haven for criminal activity in the country.

In the related Facebook post, Bongbong said that POGOs “will cease operations and wind down by the end of the year”. He also stated that they are posing as a legitimate front for other nefarious criminal activities, mostly money laundering. For POGOs to be legal, they must undergo through PAGCOR’s (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) processing first.

The ban also followed through the months when ill-fated Bamban mayor, Alice Leal Guo, was accused of being an associate to these POGOs, and that her legitimacy as a Filipino citizen is put into question.

We’re hoping to see that this would also reduce the number of text and call scams we’ve been receiving by the past few months. Some representatives also noticed this, too. However, we haven’t got any since July 16. Netizens also praised the president’s decision.

Source: Rappler, Presidential Communications Office, GMA Network