Reporting on raids, media limited discussion of the POGO ban

THREE MONTHS after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered a total ban on Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs), media has continued to report on raids to close down POGO hubs that have continued to be operated by foreign nationals, mostly from China.

From January 1 to March 7, the media reported the raid of at least 12 illegal POGOs, eight of which were previously registered with the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) before the ban and continued operations after December 31, 2024, the president’s deadline for closure of all POGOs. 

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission also said that as of March 12, 1,000 POGO workers have been arrested, with some 10,000 still at large. 

Clearly, the concerned agencies have missed the deadline. But so far, there has been no word from the Palace about a later deadline as Marcos Jr. had to do several times to implement the jeepney modernization plan. It is as though the failure has gone unnoticed. 

Meanwhile, the coverage of the ban and its implementation did not highlight this failure of enforcement nor probe the reasons for slow implementation. 

Indeed, the media reported the raids as separate events, a treatment that presented the discoveries as disconnected episodes. There was no effort on the part of journalists to look into the reasons of the failure. Reports did not review the system by which police raids were conducted, how the targets were identified and other factors affecting the campaign. 

The “reinvented POGOs”

On February 27, Senator Risa Hontiveros may have put her finger on the problem. Speaking at a Kapihan sa Senado, Hontiveros spoke about the need to revise the order itself which excluded “online games of chance conducted in PAGCOR-operated casinos, licensed casinos, and junket agreements” – the latter to enable integrated resorts to promote casinos on their premises. 

Hontiveros flagged the transformation of the POGO, splitting into smaller units to operate in different locations, including condominiums and even residential areas. She said, “we are not ruling out the strong possibility that they are already expanding or moving beyond the metro to extend their operations.” 

True enough, one raided office building in Parañaque City was operating with a permit as an entertainment business but was revealed on February 21 to be a POGO enterprise.

Reports also picked up Hontiveros’ sharp warning: “This should be a wake-up call and to serve notice to PAGCOR that they must not let these ‘reinvented POGOs’ find a space in casinos and those with junket agreements under its jurisdiction.”

PAGCOR is state-owned and has been running for 48 years, operating its own casinos nationwide, overseeing and regulating privately owned-casinos and other game sites for bingo and other e-games. 

A change of language in the executive ban may broaden the scope of raids and speed up the complete elimination of POGO.  But Hontiveros’ suggestion raises the question about the government’s policy objective.  

Is the ban against online gambling even when it is managed by PAGCOR and its licensed casinos? Or is the ban against the operations run by foreign nationals who may be working in the country as illegal aliens, as well as proven to use POGO as a front for other criminal activities?

So far media accounts have left out this policy question in its coverage. Reporters have yet to follow up on any of the senator’s leads. The issues are complex and made more challenging should PAGCOR be proven involved, wittingly, or in sheltering the “reinvented” POGO.

Reporting on serial raids was an easy task. The media must now help to clarify the objective of the ban. Only when the government is clear about its purpose can the order be revised for effective and clear implementation.