Insider Spotlight
Driving the news:
Several senators have filed bills to outlaw online gambling, including proposals to criminalize ordinary players. But Quiogue argues in a 15-page legal memo that banning the activity would weaken government oversight and boost unregulated operators.
“An outright ban, especially one structured as clumsily as penalizing individual bettors, is more likely to create a host of new problems… and a boom for illegal operators who will fill the void,” Quiogue wrote in her July 7 position paper .
The context:
Among the most controversial proposals is Senator Joel Villanueva’s bill that seeks to imprison or fine anyone who places a bet online—an approach Quiogue calls “legally unsound and impractical.”
“This approach is legally unsound and impractical… serious gamblers will simply move to unregulated platforms or use VPNs to evade detection,” she warned .
Why it matters:
Online gambling is already regulated under Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), with licensed operators required to meet strict know-your-customer (KYC), age verification, and cybersecurity standards. Quiogue said the problem lies in illegal and offshore operations—not the licensed domestic sector.
“Licensed online gambling in the Philippines has not been shown to generate kidnappings, trafficking, or large-scale fraud,” she said, noting that the worst criminal cases are often linked to illegal Philippine offshore gaming operators or unsupervised sites.
The bottom line:
Quiogue urges lawmakers to “sharpen existing tools” rather than rewrite the rulebook. She proposes tougher penalties for unlicensed operators, stricter ad rules, and enhanced cooperation among agencies like Pagcor, the National Telecommunications Commission, the Anti-Money Laundering Council, and the Department of Justice.
“The real enemy is not the internet, nor gambling per se—it’s the unchecked, unregulated exploitation that flourishes when we turn off the lights and pretend a problem has gone away,” she concluded .
With Pagcor-supervised e-gaming contributing P51.39 billion in first quarter revenue alone, the lawyer said the ideal path forward is to impose smarter — not stricter — regulations.