The PlaySafe Alliance of the Philippines, a recently-launched trade group reuniting the interests of 18 licensed gambling operators and companies in the country, has commended a recent hearing at the Senate and argued that it helped set the right tone in hammering out the details surrounding the domestic online gambling framework.
The PlaySafe Alliance was established in a hurry and amid a flurry of speculation that PresidentBongbong Marcos could cave in to political pressure and acquiesce to completely banning online gambling.
Establishing the problems related to gambling harm that need to be overcome
Ample evidence, though, suggests that such a matter would be counter-productive to say the least. In a statement issued on Monday, the PlaySafe Alliance said that the hearing had helped put things in the right wording:
"We commend the Senate for surfacing the central truth in its hearing: the harms highlighted – underage access, uncontrolled betting, and financial distress – stem from illegal, unlicensed platforms, not from Pagcor-licensed operators."
Essentially, the PlaySafe Alliance argued that it was correct for the Senate to surmise that harm originated not from the regulated gambling sector, but rather from offshore and illegal gambling operators, which are not beholden to the same standards established by PAGCOR that licensed operators are.
The PlaySafe Alliance said that a regulatory framework helped draw a line between what measures worked and what didn’t. The organization added that an outright ban would have unintended consequences.
What is more, the majority of Filipinos do not want to see online gambling gone, and if anything, they care about licensed and regulated products. The offshore market is now said to dominate 50% of the gambling market in the Philippines, with these operators not paying tax into the country or contributing in any other way.
Lawmakers need to focus on battering the offshore and unregulated market
The PlaySafe Alliance also hailed the measures rolled out by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which ordered e-wallets to cancel transactions to online gambling platforms in a bid to boost consumer protection and safety.
However, the organization reiterated its original position: that limiting licensed gambling operators from viable payment providers would hurt both the businesses and the consumers they serve, inadvertently empowering the unregulated gambling market.
"Delinking licensed operators from online payment platforms would not stop gambling. It risks pushing players into the dark corners of the Internet where activity is untraceable, taxes disappear, and harm is harder to detect," the statement from the organization read.
