For years, Pogos flourished in the Philippines, bringing in billions of pesos in revenue while also opening the door to crime and corruption. Now, as Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s government races to shut down the last of these controversial offshore gaming operators by year’s end, critics warn that the deeper vulnerabilities they exposed remain unresolved.
Money laundering, human trafficking and cyber fraud have all been linked to the once-booming Pogo industry, which catered largely to a Chinese clientele and peaked in 2019 with nearly 300 operators. Today, only 17 remain, with authorities expecting all to cease operations by December 31.
“You can expect that there will be no more licensed Pogos operating by the end of this year,” Alejandro Tengco, head of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), said at a national security forum this month.
But Tengco himself admitted that “simply eradicating Pogos is not enough” – echoing concerns that without broader reforms to governance and enforcement, the banned operators could simply go underground, exploiting the same porous systems that allowed them to thrive in the first place.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, who spearheaded a Senate investigation into the Pogo-linked human trafficking case involving former Bamban mayor Alice Guo, believes the issue reveals a deeper rot. “What was on trial … in our Senate hearings was the systems, the laws, the policies that made way for people like her – and perhaps even nations – to abuse and exploit the vulnerabilities of our institutions,” Hontiveros said.