PAGCOR blocks 5,793 illegal online gaming sites; criminals use crypto currency to avoid detection

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has successfully shut down 5,793 out of 7,747 identified illegal online gambling sites in the country. Despite these achievements, 1,954 sites remain active, posing ongoing challenges for the regulatory body.

PAGCOR Senior Vice President for Security Monitoring Cluster Raul Villanueva detailed the complex process during the Senate committee on ways and means’ public hearing on the Anti-Online Gambling Act held last July 16.

According to Villanueva, PAGCOR monitors various illegal activities, not only focusing on online games but also on other platforms such as e-sabong, Facebook ads, mobile applications, offshore sites, and spam messages across different communication channels like Telegram.

The agency employs two primary methods to block these sites: URL blocking and payment blocking. While URL blocking involves coordinating with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict access, payment blocking presents a more complicated challenge. Many illegal operators utilize cryptocurrencies and offshore banking systems to evade detection. However, PAGCOR has been proactive in engaging local digital payment gateways like GCash and PayMaya.

“The payment blocking as of now based on my research, there’s no studies yet on payment blocking because some of these criminals use crypto currency as a mode of payment. And the banking system is very complex, offshore banking is very complex. But we [have reached] out to payment portals like GCash and Maya, and we had a meeting two weeks ago with a representative of Gcash and they promised us to purge on these illegal sites because we have submitted to them or have publish or publish in our websites only the illegal sites,” Villanueva was quoted as saying in a report published by the Inquirer.

Despite these efforts, PAGCOR Chairperson Alejandro Tengco acknowledges the persistent challenge posed by the adaptability of illegal operators. These sites often “reincarnate,” re-emerging under new URLs shortly after being blocked.

Nevertheless, there have been positive developments. The crackdown has compelled some illegal operators to seek legitimacy.

“The good news is in the last 45 days, three big companies involved in illegal operations or not registered, have already come up and manifested that they already want to be registered and will get out of the unregistered market,” said PAGCOR chairperson Alejandro Tengco

As of July 3, 2024, 35 gaming system service providers have been approved by the Electronic Gaming Licensing Department of PAGCOR.