‘It’s time to move on in the case of online gambling. No more grandstanding. It’s time for a cold reboot — to deliver real solutions, once and for all.’
ONLINE gambling is booming — and so is the political appetite to find a scapegoat. GCash, the ubiquitous e-wallet in millions of Filipino pockets, has become easy prey: the perfect scapegoat for a complex problem.
It’s politically convenient. GCash is visible, profitable, and widely used — an obvious lightning rod for lawmakers, acting as Zeus, eager to show swift action.
With over 90 million users, GCash is the most recognizable digital financial brand in the country. It’s easier to sell the idea that cutting off e-wallets will slow gambling than to explain the complex web of unregulated operators.
But the operational reality is more complicated. E-wallets are just one piece in a sprawling ecosystem that includes unlicensed gambling platforms, weak enforcement, and patchy regulation. Singling out a particular e-wallet risks oversimplifying a multifaceted problem.
By focusing fire on GCash, legislators may sidestep more challenging issues: ineffective oversight of unlicensed operators, inadequate age verification systems, and fragmented regulatory frameworks, all compounded by persistent corruption that weakens enforcement throughout the online gambling ecosystem.
Acknowledging GCash’s role in enabling transactions is necessary. But is targeting the platform a genuine fix, or political theater?
Real progress demands systemic solutions: coordinated regulation uniting all stakeholders; robust consumer protection guarding vulnerable users; and rigorous monitoring to close loopholes exploited by rogue operators.
A symbolic hit on GCash won’t halt online gambling’s surge or shield those at risk. Only comprehensive, uncompromising reform will break the cycle. No excuse. No shortcut.
No mercy for the mess this nation inherited from Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, who turned the Philippines into their personal playground. With POGOs banned last year, the country has turned the page on a legacy of unchecked proliferation and halted their momentum.
That’s political will right there. So never turn the legislative floor into a public whipping post for a circumstantial offender. It may be convenient to punish, yet so wrong when pointing the finger at someone not guilty of encouraging get-rich-quick schemes.
In this equation, the human factor matters more than e-wallets as enablers of online gambling. It is man’s drive to rise out of poverty; the avarice that plagues the rich to get richer; and, of course, the prolific sprouting of easy-access gaming apps.
It’s time to move on in the case of online gambling. No more grandstanding. It’s time for a cold reboot — to deliver real solutions, once and for all.
