Online Gambling in the Philippines
Gambling is legal in the Philippines and it is controlled by the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), a government-owned corporation created in 1976, solely authorized to run legal gambling operations in the Philippines. It runs under the direct supervision of the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines.
PAGCOR currently operates 13 Casino Filipino branches in major cities and popular tourist destinations across the country's three major islands.
These casinos offer baccarat, blackjack, roulette, craps, big & small, pai gow, stud poker, and pontoon, among others. They also offer a wide array of top-of-the-line slot machines manufactured by renowned international suppliers like Aristocrat, IGT, Konami, Williams and Bally.
PAGCOR casinos also hold regular and big-pot bingo games.
On the online gaming front, PAGCOR operates e-Games Cafes - internet Cafes dedicated to casino games. PAGCOR opted for this instead of a web-based approach because not many Filipinos have credit cards and those who do are not yet comfortable on using for online transactions.
PAGCOR offers franchises for these e-Games Cafes.
For online gambling operators, the First Cagayan Leisure and Resort Corporation (FCLRC) is authorized to grant interactive gaming licenses for operating online casinos, sports books, fixed odds, betting exchange, lotteries, bingo and other interactive games.
FCLRC is the sole Master Licensor of Interactive Gaming in the Cagayan Special Economic Zone and Freeport (CSEZFP), dubbed as Asia's first gambling jurisdiction. The freeport is located in Port Irene, Casambalangan, Santa Ana, Cagayan. It is near the north easternmost portion of the Luzon mainland.
CSEZFP-licensed sites may only accept bets from offshore players and only on offshore sporting events. Operators cannot accept bets originating from within the territorial jurisdiction of the Philippines and/or on sporting events held within the country.
About the Philippines
The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is an archipelago located in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia.
The Philippines covers an area of 299,764 square kilometers (about 115,831 sqare miles). It has a population of about 92 million people making it the world's 12th most populous country.