President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. capped off his over 80-minute long State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 22, with the bombshell announcement of a complete ban on Philippine offshore gaming operators.

“Effective today, all POGOs are banned. I hereby instruct Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) to wind down and cease the operations of POGOs by the end of the year,” Marcos said.

The order heeds the call of various groups to put a stop to POGO operations which have been plagued with scandals related to money laundering, immigration bribery, illegal recruitment, and human trafficking.

It also followed a months-long probe by the Senate into offshore gambling activities, which thrusted Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo, who has been linked to POGOs in her jurisdiction, into the national spotlight.

Questions surrounding her identity and citizenship have complicated the matter, with Senator Risa Hontiveros even suggesting at one point that she was a Chinese spy tasked to infiltrate local politics. 

In his speech on Monday, Marcos said he would task the labor department to find jobs for countrymen who will be displaced by his tall order. 

“Disguising as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into elicit areas farthest from gaming such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture, even murder,” Marcos asserted. 

“The grave abuse and great disrespect to our system of laws must stop,” he added. 

The Philippines under the administration of Rodrigo Duterte began processing licenses for POGO firms in 2016, in a bid to find another source of revenue for the government.

By 2019, the number of POGO hubs soared to as high as 300. Despite reports of their involvement in criminal activities, and the Anti-Money Laundering Council’s report that P1 billion in POGO transactions were related to suspicious activities, Duterte did not ban offshore gambling. (READ: IN NUMBERS: Risks, benefits of POGO operations)

Many POGOs are backed or operated by Chinese nationals, who can’t run such businesses in their home country, where it is illegal.

The Chinese government has repeatedly called on the Philippines to put an end to POGOs. – Rappler.com