Senate Hearing Confirms the Core Issue: Illegal Gaming Platforms

We commend the Senate for surfacing the central truth in its hearing: the harms highlighted—underage access, uncontrolled betting, and financial distress—stem from illegal, unlicensed platforms, not from PAGCOR-licensed operators.

Licensed operators are subject to oversight, audits, and sanctions. They run KYC, age verification, and responsible gaming mechanisms. The Senate’s work draws a clean line: where regulation exists, protection exists; where illegality thrives, protection vanishes.

We share the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ objectives on consumer protection and financial integrity. As an industry alliance, we firmly believe that the most effective way to achieve both is to keep lawful activity inside the regulatory perimeter with traceable, supervised payment rails. Delinking licensed operators from online payment platforms would not stop gambling. It risks pushing players into the dark corners of the internet where activity is untraceable, taxes disappear, and harm is harder to detect.

--PlaySafe Alliance of the Philippines