More than 23,000 Filipinos may lose their jobs if the operations of legitimate Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) and their service providers are shut down, an industry association said yesterday.
The Association of Service Providers and POGOs (ASPAP) and their workers in a joint media briefing appealed to the government to carefully weigh the sector’s economic contributions including potential job losses before deciding on the fate of the online gaming sector.
Composed of 16 Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor)-licensed POGOs and 68 service providers, ASPAP members employ a total of 23,118 Filipinos and 17,130 foreign nationals.
“We’re proud to say that our group employs more Pinoys than foreigners,” ASPAP representative Michael Danganan said.
Since ASPAP represents less than half of PAGCOR’s 35 POGO licensees, he said the number of Filipinos employed by the entire POGO sector “is definitely much higher.”
Paul Bongco, ASPAP representative, for his part said ASPAP members share most Filipinos’ concerns over the reported rise in crime incidence in the POGO sector. He stressed, however, that it’s unfair to blame the whole industry for the illegal activities of a few.
He said ASPAP members want to do business quietly, take care of their employees and pay their corresponding share in taxes.
“We thus appeal to our government — President Marcos and our senators in particular — not to look at the POGO sector as the enemy but rather an ally in nation building,” Bongco said.
Apart from employment, he said industry data showed that in the last six years POGOs contributed more than P61 billion to the government in terms of taxes and fees paid to Pagcor, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Department of Labor and Employment and Bureau of Immigration.
Real estate analyst David Leechiu also estimates that if POGOs are shut down, the Philippine economy could lose as much as P200billion annually from taxes and fees, office space and residential lease rentals, meals, retail shopping, electricity and others.
As of end-August, ASPAP’s documents showed that the tax revenues paid by the POGO sector to the BIR alone amounted to P4.83 billion, and could possibly reach at least P6 billion by year-end.
Pre-pandemic, the amount generated reached as high as P7.2 billion for the full year.
“We are optimistic that by 2023, we’ll have a better performance,” Bongco said.
