While President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.‘s ban on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) was warmly welcomed, the concept of “Internet Gaming Licensees” came to light as many questioned if it was a “rebranding.”
In this third State of the Nation Address, the chief executive received a standing ovation when he called for the ceasing of operations of POGOs in the country, citing their illicit activities which he said show “grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws.”
READ: Marcos orders closure of POGOs | Marcos’ mentions of POGO ban, West Philippine Sea in SONA 2024 cheered
“Kailangan nang itigil ang panggulo nito sa ating lipunan at paglalapastangan sa ating bansa!” Marcos declared.
“Effective today, all POGOs are banned,” he continued.
“I hereby instruct PAGCOR to wind down and cease the operations of POGOs by the end of the year,” the president said.
For some Filipinos, the joy over the POGO ban declaration was momentary as they recalled reports of POGO being changed to the name Internet Gaming Licensee or IGL.
“POGOs banned effective today!”-PBBM
“Change the name of POGO to IGL, then report to the President that there are no more POGOs operating in the country.”-PAGCOR pic.twitter.com/z8McL0v0hg
— Cece 🇵🇭 (@MamaPiaya) July 22, 2024
“Rebranding on POGOs ang nangyari, not ban. They just changed the term to IGL,” an X user wrote on Monday.
Rebranding on POGOs ang nangyari not ban. They just changed the term to IGL.
They entered an agreement with China on WPS after all the drama https://t.co/LmeO3KYqg1 pic.twitter.com/WfKJKV8wpt
— ninabeIlatrix 🧊 (@ninabeIlatrix1) July 22, 2024
Others requested opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros to investigate IGLs following the surface of such reports.
“@risahontiveros, please investigate POGO turning or rebranding themselves to IGL. Why is PAGCOR handing out these licenses to POGOs?” another user wrote on Tuesday.
RELATED: Hontiveros lands on Philippine trends list of X after Marcos bans POGOs
A Redditor also posted a screengrab allegedly “circulating within a Chinese POGO.”
“They will not go away,” the Reddit user said. They also translated the alleged screengrab to English.
“Since the company now belongs to the new IGL license and is not a POGO, its operations will not be affected!!!!” part of the message reportedly reads.
“POGO already belongs to the old license, and the new license IGL currently only has 38 stores in the Philippines that are still operating normally,” its translation allegedly says.
Apparently Pogos are just being relabeled as IGLs and thus will evade the ban
byu/emf311 inPhilippines
In October 2023, the STAR reported that Alejandro Tengco, PAGCOR’s chief executive officer and chairman, went to a global gambling summit in Las Vegas “to announce the change of label for the offshore gaming industry and business in the Philippines.”
Citing a report, the article quoted Tengco who said that PAGCOR will use the term “IGL” or Internet Gaming Licensee for all offshore gaming companies that will be accredited or issued a license to operate in the Philippines.
The PAGCOR chief reportedly said that the name change comes with their relicensing efforts for erstwhile-known POGOs.
In July 2023, it was reported that PAGCOR issued “Internet Gaming License Regulations” that supposedly revised the previous “Offshore Gaming Regulations” to tighten regulations after various reported violations by POGO firms.
By May 2024, a STAR editorial discussed the matter anew by saying that the government was “transforming” POGOs into IGLs.
“POGO opponents fear that this is a case of having the same dog with a different collar,” it said.
“As of last week, PAGCOR had reportedly issued regular licenses to 40 IGLs, along with nine provisional licenses,” the editorial added.
In an ambush interview on July 22, Tengco said that PAGCOR would exert full effort to ban POGOs following Marcos’ directive.
“The president has spoken; he has given instructions to PAGCOR — and basically to me — to maybe already have a process because the president wants no more operations by the end of the year,” he was quoted as saying.
“So, by 2025, we will do everything we can to ensure that no internet gaming license operates anymore,” Tengco added.
Rep. Joey Salceda (Albay, Second District), on the other hand, mentioned IGLs in response to Marcos’ ban on POGOs.
He said that POGOs only play a small part of PAGCOR’s revenues on IGLs.
“POGO is just a small part of a bigger part called IGL, which is the Internet Gaming Licensees. That’s P43 billion or 43 percent of PAGCOR, P12 million lang ang POGO,” Salceda said to reporters on Monday.
“So, ang ibig sabihin niyan, I hope they find a way banning POGO without having to affect the IGLs,” he added.
The lawmaker said that there must a “technical way” to determine which is a POGO and which is an IGL.
Salceda said that POGOs refer to gambling hubs that have yet to undergo stricter regulations, while IGLs were accredited and issued licenses to operate legally.
On Oct. 27, 2023, an IGL in Pasay City was raided for alleged human trafficking activities.
At that time, Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz said that it was the “first provisional IGL” they had raided.
“We no longer have POGO. This is the first provisional IGL we have raided. When these gaming firms renew their license, they become IGL,” he said before.
The government started regulating POGOs in 2016 under the Duterte administration.
They were initially touted as a source of revenue but have since been associated with illegal activities such as scams, torture, and human trafficking.
Will IGLs be banned, too?
At an interview on Tuesday following the declaration of the ban on POGOs in the SONA, Hontiveros, a staunch critic of both legal and illegal POGOs, said she expects that IGLs are covered in the ban.
“Pati IGL, wala na. Actually, bagong instrumento ng PAGCOR, kasunod daw ng mga dating licenses ng POGO. Pero with the pronouncement of the president yesterday, dapat pati ‘yan wala na,” she said on GMA’s “Unang Balita.” — with a report from Gabriell Galang
