Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) began in the Cagayan Special Economic Zone in 2003, initially as a policy experiment modeled after European practices. Cagayan, relying on the "RA 7922 Act," gained licensing autonomy and attracted a large number of Chinese-funded platforms. The basic logic was to conduct online gambling business under the framework of "serving only overseas markets, not touching local citizens," becoming the earliest region in Asia to test this model.
In 2016, after the Duterte administration came to power, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) launched the POGO system in the name of the state for the first time, achieving regulatory and revenue wins through license issuance and high taxes.
This period saw rapid prosperity in the POGO industry, with nearly 300 registered operators in 2019, over 300,000 foreign employees, and generating demand for hundreds of thousands of square meters of office space, becoming one of the "new pillar industries" in the Philippine economy. In 2021, the Philippines introduced the "RA 11590 Act," unifying the imposition of a 25% corporate income tax and withholding tax on foreign employees, further standardizing the system.
However, as the industry expanded, various problems gradually emerged. Since 2019, the Chinese government has issued consecutive documents pressuring, pointing out serious money laundering and telecommunications fraud issues in POGO, and demanding rectification by the Philippine side.
Domestic public opinion in the Philippines also began to reflect on its social costs. Although PAGCOR still maintained the operating license, calls for a complete ban from local governments and senators gradually increased. In 2023, the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and CIDG and other agencies raided illegal parks in Bamban, Porac, and other places, rescuing thousands of foreign workers and exposing the associated backgrounds of political figures including former mayor Alice Guo, shocking the nation.
2024 became a turning point in policy. Mid-year, PAGCOR and law enforcement agencies jointly shut down about 250–300 illegal operating units, leaving only 46 compliant POGOs to continue.
On July 22, in the State of the Nation Address, President Marcos directly announced a complete ban on POGO, clearly stating that it "fosters fraud, money laundering, and human trafficking." The next day, PAGCOR officially started the license revocation process, requiring all POGOs to cease operations by the end of the year, with foreign employees to leave the country within two months.
By November 5, "Executive Order No. 74" officially took effect, stipulating that POGO licenses will no longer be renewed, licensing rights are reclaimed, managed by a unified system under PAGCOR, and a law enforcement alliance composed of CIDG, NBI, and the Bureau of Immigration, launching a comprehensive cleanup operation, while establishing employee retraining and subsidy programs, encouraging economic zones to transition to legal BPO/IT industries.
This policy "sweep" initially yielded significant results: a large number of illegal parks closed, local security pressures eased, and also won space for the Philippines to be removed from the FATF anti-money laundering grey list. China, the Philippines, and ASEAN countries also established a cross-border fraud joint intelligence mechanism, forming a regional effort. From the end of 2024 to March 2025, the entire POGO system completely ended from its peak, and the Philippines gradually cleaned up the "digital black holes" that had arisen due to regulatory failures.
Looking back on this 20-year rise and fall, the lessons of POGO are profound: a gambling economy that relies on systemic loopholes and regulatory arbitrage is ultimately unsustainable; lack of transparent mechanisms and international compliance in offshore licensing is easily abused by transnational criminal groups. In the future, the Philippines will unify gambling licensing rights under national regulation and focus on cultivating IT and legal BPO industries, aiming to rectify the name of the economic zone and also put an end to past chaos.
