If you’re annoyed at the number of online gambling ads in the internet and at billboards nationwide, you’re not the only one: we do think that it should be heavily regulated.
I’d be honest here: I hate the amount of online gambling ads I see in ALL social media platforms, and even when I drive around Metro Manila. Some of these billboards even have misleading claims like cashbacks—we all know that’s never true.
Capstone-Intel CEO Nicasio Conti told The Philippine Star that online gambling could fuel debt, mental health problems and even financial crimes such as money laundering. “The glamorization of gambling through aggressive ads is normalizing addiction and destroying lives quietly,” Conti said.
I agree with Conti that there should be a nationwide ban on online gambling advertisements even if there’s a push for responsible gaming. While DigiPlus defines this as “engaging in gambling activities in a way that minimizes potential negative effects on individuals and society,” I think there should be stricter regulations to that.
There are established studies about the effects of online gambling. With the paper made by the National Library of Medicine, online gambling is more addictive than traditional gambling especially for the youth. “Various studies note that online gamblers are three to eight times more likely to exhibit problematic gambling than those who do not gamble online,” the paper said.
It is not a good thing that online gambling apps these days are so accessible, some phone brands even have BingoPlus as part of the bloatware that gets preinstalled (at least you can delete them right away). It’s also scary that these apps are so accessible even to the youth. For one, I was alarmed to hear teenagers excited to play “scatter” like it’s just a normal thing for them. If the youth has access to these apps, you could just imagine how their finances would dwindle so fast—there may come a point that they’ll drown in debt.
That being said, I like what politicians like Senator Win Gatchalian propose. Among the measures Gatchalian proposes include:
- Prohibiting the linking of eWallets (Gcash, Maya, etc) for pay for online gambling activities
- Increase minimum top-up to Php 5,000 to Php 10,000
- Stricter advertising regulations that also covers endorsements by celebrities and influencers.
- Stricter KYC system where clients will require to submit IDs, biometrics, etc. to prove they are above 21 years old.
READ MORE:
Aside from his proposals, Gatchalian also calls for PAGCOR and other government agencies to block these websites from being accessed by local internet users—on top of the POGO Ban issued by President Bongbong Marcos at his 2024 SONA.
Looking at Gatchalian’s proposals, they do make sense but I think it can be further improved. For the minimum top-up for example, I think the amount should be higher–or that there should be additional measures to ensure that players will not fall into making loans for gambling. For the IDs, there’s a need to be specific with the IDs presented–government IDs are a good start, and that the KYC process should include live verification just like how eWallets and digital banks do it.
While the Philippines is working to regulate online gambling, maybe they can take notes from New Zealand, where it includes hefty fines for those breaking the law and limiting the number of operators to 15. There’s also a need to properly differentiate online gambling from online gaming, because they are two different things contrary to how PAGCOR defines it in its Gaming Regulatory Manual. By all means, online games like Valorant and Counter-Strike are not the same as games offered by DigiPlus and its subsidiaries.
