Philippines considers public listing, tax hike for gambling firms

• The Philippines is debating new regulatory measures for its gambling industry
• Among those are mandatory public listing for gambling companies and increased tax
• The past weeks have seen a slew of conflicting proposals put forward on how to best regulate the industry

The Philippines is amid a strange gambling reform that is not clearly defined, with conflicting opinions issued left and right. Earlier this week, the country’s President, Bongbong Marcos, was handed a proposal that sought to ban all gambling in the country.

Public listings and tax increases are the way forward

While the President is unlikely to act on this, others have been pitching more lenient but yet stringent draft laws that could completely change the fabric of gambling regulation in the Southeast Asian country.

The Philippine Finance Secretary, Ralph Recto, said this Thursday that the government is considering enacting certain changes to the existing regulatory framework, with several notable focal points.

Any changes, however, have to reflect the reality that there is still a significant presence of offshore operators in the country. Overregulation may further empower the black-market ops.

For starters, the government wants to seek a 10% tax increase on online gambling and, notably, be obligated to list on the nation’s stock exchange and become publicly traded entities. The idea argues Recto is to ensure a higher level of transparency, as a public listing would bring the ownership structure to light and ensure that companies have more to lose by breaching the rules.

"We can force them to list," Recto said firmly, cited by local media. As to increasing the applying tax on gambling, there are different ways to enact this. One is to leave this in the hands of the national gambling regulator, PAGCOR, which can enact changes in the tax code applicable to gambling entities.

Government focused on eking out more money for the state coffers

However, the government can use its legal levers to introduce changes. Even a 10% increase, argues Recto, should result in a major boost to the country’s coffers, estimated at $350m at current gross gaming revenue produced by the gambling industry.

The government, though, is looking for potential ways to boost the windfall generated by the gambling sector and said that it will further examine what an appropriate tax increase could be.

In the meantime, PAGCOR and the local advertisement watchdog have signed a Memorandum of Understanding this week, obligating any issuer of gambling ads in the country to submit for pre-screening before the material can be shared with the wider public. Ads have been banned from billboards and public spaces as well.

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