Safeguards

We need some urgent refining of policy on the matter of online gaming. When the national government decided to ban POGOs last year, local governments went to town banning all forms of online gaming.

- ALEX MAGNO

While doing so is allowed under the Local Government Code, it threatens the viability of the online gaming industry.

August last year, the Pasig LGU shut down all e-bingo and other e-games operations in the city. This happened as POGO operations in the locality were banned.

Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto decided online bingo gaming "brings no good to our society." It fostered gambling addiction. A number of suicides were attributed to gambling addiction.

Manila 6th District Rep. Benny Abante demanded that all online games that target Filipino customers such as virtual poker, casinos, sports betting and e-bingo be banned along with the POGOs that cater to a foreign clientele. He quotes "scientific studies" that show pathological gamblers engage in destructive behavior. As they run up large debts, they destroy family relationships.

Quezon City passed Ordinance No. 2285 that regulates e-games, including e-bingo and "other games of chance." The ordinance states that "any form of gambling is considered detrimental to the state policy of protecting the Filipino family because gambling diverts precious (family time)."

Naga City, for its part, passed an ordinance imposing a moratorium on e-bingo. The city government "considers gambling inimical to the interests of the people. Habitual gambling, in fact, is a cause of laziness and ruin."

While local governments may prohibit online gaming, enforcement may be problematic. Online gambling does not require physical betting locations and can therefore defy the boundaries of local governments.