One-year license duration
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. has reportedly issued “around 35” offshore gaming licenses, according to the Philippine Star and other news outlets. The number of licensed Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators—POGOs for short—were supposed to have been capped at 25 for the first six months of operations so the regulator could “study the process thoroughly.”
CalvinAyre.com reports that the licenses will be valid for one year as President Rodrigo Duterte’s overhauled gaming regime gets under way. In October, PAGCOR CEO Andrea Domingo said her office had received 76 applications for the licenses, which were initially expected to be issued by the end of October.
Duterte spoke out against the Philippines-based online industry soon after taking office in July, and forced e-Games provider PhilWeb to shut down more than 280 internet cafes by not renewing the company’s license. Only weeks later, however, the regulator announced it would allow offshore gaming in the country, in a move it claimed is “meant to safeguard the welfare of the Filipinos at the same time meet the agency’s revenue targets to help fund the government’s nation-building programs.”
Each of the new licensees paid application and processing fees of $50,000 for online casinos and $40,000 for sports betting. They ponied up an additional $200,000 for online casinos and $150,000 for sports betting after the licenses were approved.
But there’s a legal fly in the ointment: an anti-corruption group has asked the Supreme Court to rescind PAGCOR’s ability to issue offshore gaming licenses either to Philippine or offshore-based operators.
According to the Philippine Inquirer, Miguel Daniel Cruz, chairman of the Union for National Development and Good Governance said the rules and regulations for offshore gaming operations is unconstitutional.
In its appeal, UNLAD stated, “It is the humble submission of the petitioners that PAGCOR committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction when it approved the assailed Rules on Offshore Gaming. PAGCOR is not authorized under its legislative franchise, Presidential Decree 1869, either to operate and regulate gambling on the internet catering foreign based players and gamblers that are physically outside the Philippine jurisdiction.
“Therefore, the rules on offshore gaming approved and currently implemented are null and void on the ground that PAGCOR is patently without jurisdiction, legislative franchise, authority or power to issue licenses for the opening, establishment, operation, regulation, control and management of online gambling.”
