Philippines: all our coverage

Malacañang has asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to look at whether January's visa-free scheme for Chinese visitors is being used to staff illegal offshore gaming and scam hubs. It is a review, not a decision, and the scheme was due one before it expires anyway.

The Philippine operator behind BingoPlus and ArenaPlus says it dropped out of the last rounds of New Zealand's auction for the right to apply for an online casino licence, citing "market values". It is the second overseas plan to stall in a month, after Brazil's ban.

Okada Manila drew more visitors, filled more hotel rooms and earned nearly a fifth more from its mass tables in the third quarter, yet revenue was flat and adjusted EBITDA fell 13%. Most of the mass-table gain came from a higher win rate rather than more play, and the VIP business kept shrinking.

The Philippine regulator's chairman says its own casino chain is "bleeding like mad" and will lose at least PHP7 billion this year, and he now values the 35 casinos he wants to sell at less than half of earlier estimates. The decision to sell still rests with the President.

Two courts in Fujian have sentenced the leader of the Wei family crime group, his nephew and a third defendant to death for scam compounds and casinos run under armed protection in Myanmar's Kokang region. It is the third of Kokang's "four families" to reach a verdict in China, and the first two ended in executions within about four months.

Immigration officers, the National Bureau of Investigation and the army raided two sites in Zamboanga Sibugay on 2 October and found some 3,000 mobile phones. The Bureau of Immigration calls it this year's biggest offshore gaming bust, which says as much about the ban as about the raid.

A week after reports that a smart-table mandate would not come before the second half of 2027, PAGCOR's chairman has named a start date and the four Entertainment City resorts it covers. The requirement is to begin converting, not to finish, and no circular, cost estimate or technical standard has been published.

PAGCOR's chairman wants the online market written into statute before his term ends, so that it "will not easily be scrapped". A Hong Kong-listed newcomer has meanwhile shown how much of that market still rests on the regulator's accreditations, and how quickly they can go.

The Philippine regulator wants live visibility of bets across the gaming floor, according to Inside Asian Gaming, which reports that a mandate originally planned for this year has slipped and would start with the integrated resorts. PAGCOR has not announced the policy.

Camarines Sur representative Arnie Fuentebella told colleagues the application has been "neither approved nor disapproved", contradicting the interior secretary, who said last week it had been denied. Roque is wanted at home on non-bailable trafficking charges tied to a former offshore gaming hub.

The ratings agency expects the operator to hold 40% to 50% of legal online gaming for two years, with the second player at 15% to 20%. It also says the risk of regulatory intervention is "higher in the Philippines than other jurisdictions", cites the e-wallet delinking that cut DigiPlus revenue 23% in a quarter, and flags Senate bills that could ban the product outright. The central bank added a new one today.

Thousands of PHP50 payments after midnight to businesses that on paper were beauty parlours and corner shops turned out to be bets. The BSP has shut the merchant accounts and drafted rules that put the burden on GCash, Maya and their aggregators to know who they are paying. PAGCOR's chairman: "Unfortunately, we don't have control over that."

Chairman Alejandro Tengco told the IAG Academy Summit the split of PAGCOR's regulator and Casino Filipino roles now waits on the Office of the President, and that a PAGCOR app to steer players to licensed sites lands in the fourth quarter.

The Philippine regulator has cut its outlook for the year as the online segment that recently overtook land-based casinos slumps, with the chairman pointing to squeezed lower-income players and the removal of e-wallet links from gambling platforms.

The Philippines regulator has drawn a line on operator promotional spending. With cash-back capped at 15% and rebates at 1.5% of turnover, the days of unlimited bonus competition in the Philippines are over.

The Pasig City Regional Trial Court has found former Bamban Mayor Alice Guo and several co-accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of orchestrating a network

PAGCOR reports nearly 50% revenue drop after Philippines e-wallet gambling ban. Official warns illegal sites surge as players leave legal iGaming platforms.

Philippines relaunches e-visa system for Chinese nationals in Nov 2025 to boost tourism recovery. Policy aims to restore key market after 2023 suspension.

The casino industry in the Philippines is facing a major new investigation from the country's financial intelligence unit, the Anti-Money Laundering Council

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the nation’s state gaming regulator, has revealed that it has withheld or voided more than ₱200

Hann Holdings Inc, a major casino and resort developer in the Philippines, has officially postponed its much-anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO), in a

The Philippine government has secured a major victory in its escalating campaign against online gambling, with social media platform TikTok agreeing to a

A recent regulatory crackdown on payment channels in the Philippines is already having unintended consequences, with gambling operators reportedly migrating

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has announced his intention to convene a broad "conclave" of stakeholders to forge a new national policy for online gambling in