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Gambling Laws in the Philippines 2026: Referee and Player

Yes, gambling is legal in the Philippines — and the body that decides what “legal” means is paid a percentage of the winnings. PAGCOR is the national regulator and a casino operator at once, but the operator half is now the smaller problem: in 2025 only 10.9% of PAGCOR’s gaming revenue came from its own Casino Filipino venues, while 89.1% came from fees charged to the companies it licenses, inspects and disciplines (16Best analysis). Selling the casinos, which the government intends to do, fixes the visible conflict and leaves the structural one exactly where it is: a regulator whose income is a cut of the market it polices gets poorer every time it succeeds at policing it. The Philippines proved that in 2026, and the arithmetic is below.

Is gambling legal in the Philippines in 2026?

Yes — land-based casinos, licensed online casino and sports betting for residents, bingo, the state lottery and licensed cockfighting are all lawful, provided the operator holds a licence from PAGCOR, PCSO or a special economic zone authority. Everything else is a criminal offence, and the list of “everything else” grew in 2025 rather than shrank.

That is the plain answer. The complication is who grants the permission. The Philippines did not build a gambling commission and then license operators. It chartered a state gaming corporation in 1983, gave it a monopoly franchise, and then let it sublicense the franchise to private companies for a share of their revenue. Every question that follows on this page is downstream of that one design decision.

Who writes the rules, and under which law?

PAGCOR — the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation — under Presidential Decree 1869, signed by Ferdinand Marcos on 11 July 1983, and amended by Republic Act 9487 on 20 June 2007. PD 1869 consolidated a string of earlier decrees into one charter granting PAGCOR the franchise to operate and license games of chance throughout Philippine territory, on land and water. RA 9487 extended that franchise by 25 years from its 11 July 2008 expiry, carrying it to 11 July 2033, and widened PAGCOR’s power to enter joint ventures and licensing arrangements with private parties.

Read that table as a chronology and a pattern appears. The 1978 and 1983 instruments are decrees, not statutes — written by one man under martial-law powers. The 2004 and 2007 acts are legislative. The 2024 instrument is executive again. And the 2025 act criminalises what the 2021 act taxed. Philippine gambling law is not a settled boundary that industry operates inside; it is a control the state moves.

Where is the conflict of interest, really?

Not in the casinos PAGCOR owns — those are 3.16% of the market and shrinking — but in the 30% of licensee gross gaming revenue PAGCOR collects as its fee. The dual mandate everyone writes about is the operator role. The dual mandate that actually moves decisions is the funding model.

Here is the split, and it is worth checking line by line rather than taking on trust. PAGCOR booked ₱95.15 billion of gaming revenue in 2025 across exactly three lines: ₱10.38 billion from the Casino Filipino venues it runs itself, ₱31.44 billion from the licensed casinos it regulates — PAGCOR publishes no line-item definition of that middle line, and we read it, as the trade press does, as its share of licensee win — and ₱53.33 billion from e-games, e-bingo and bingo grantees. The three add to ₱95.15 billion. Which means 10.9% of PAGCOR’s gaming revenue is money it won from its own players, and 89.1% — ₱84.77 billion — is a cut of companies it licenses, inspects and disciplines (16Best analysis).

The two halves are also moving in opposite directions. Casino Filipino won ₱12.52 billion of national GGR in 2025, 3.16% of the market it polices, down 20.95% on the year. Over the same twelve months the electronic and online segment it licenses won ₱201.12 billion, up 30.04%. Both figures are gross gaming revenue, so they are directly comparable: the part of PAGCOR that is an operator shrank by a fifth while the part that is a landlord grew by a third.

Now watch what happened when the regulator regulated. In the second half of 2025 PAGCOR ordered gambling billboards down, signed an advertising memorandum, tightened know-your-customer rules, and the central bank forced e-wallets to unlink from gambling sites. First-quarter 2026 national GGR fell 15.87% year on year, from ₱104.12 billion to ₱87.60 billion, with the electronic and online segment — e-games, e-bingo, bingo and poker — down 22.43% to ₱39.90 billion. The reversal was fast. Online had overtaken licensed casinos as the largest segment for the first time only in full-year 2025, at 50.77% of national GGR; one quarter later the casinos were back in front, at ₱44.52 billion and 50.83% of the quarter against electronic gaming’s 45.55%.

That is the spine of Philippine gambling law in one calculation. A health ministry that reduces smoking does not lose its budget. A gaming regulator paid a percentage of gross gaming revenue does. Privatising Casino Filipino removes the 10.9%. It does not touch the 89.1%.

Which gambling is a crime for an ordinary Filipino?

Any wager placed with an operator that holds no licence — and under Executive Order 13 of 2017, “illegal gambling” expressly covers participation in any game not authorised by the agency empowered to license it. The offence is not the betting. It is the counterparty.

Two instruments do the work. Presidential Decree 1602, issued 11 June 1978, is the general anti-illegal-gambling decree, drafted to replace a patchwork of weaker penalties covering jueteng, unlicensed cockfighting, illegal card games and unauthorised lotteries. Republic Act 9287, approved 2 April 2004, then rebuilt the penalty structure for illegal numbers games specifically — jueteng, masiao, the “last two” — and its architecture is worth reading closely, because it sentences by role.

The ladder climbs away from the table and toward the people who make the table possible. A punter risks three months. The public official who shields the operation risks twenty years, plus perpetual disqualification from office. RA 9287 is not really an anti-gambling law. It is an anti-protection law wearing one, written after decades in which jueteng survived because it was protected.

What happened to POGO, and is offshore gaming now a crime?

Yes — offshore gaming is banned outright and criminally punishable under Republic Act 12312, signed in October 2025, after a decade in which the same activity was licensed by PAGCOR and taxed by statute. The sequence is the clearest evidence on this page that Philippine gambling law follows revenue and pressure rather than principle.

Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators were licensed from 2016 to serve players outside the Philippines, and Republic Act 11590 (2021) built a dedicated tax regime around them. Then the sector became a national scandal — scam compounds, trafficking, a mayor with contested citizenship. President Marcos announced the ban in his State of the Nation Address on 22 July 2024. Executive Order 74, signed 5 November 2024, made it immediate: no new licences, no renewals, and complete cessation of all offshore gaming and ancillary services on or before 31 December 2024.

RA 12312 then converted the executive order into a statute and added prison terms. Sources split on the signing date — the act was signed on 23 October 2025 but published only on 29 October, so both dates circulate; we say October 2025 rather than pick one.

RA 12312 also repealed RA 11590 outright. A revenue statute and a criminal statute for the same activity, four years apart, from the same legislature.

If offshore gaming is banned, is domestic online gambling legal?

Yes. Filipino residents aged 21 and over may legally play on PAGCOR-licensed sites, under three licence families: e-games, PIGO and e-bingo. The distinction that trips up most coverage is direction of travel. POGO faced outward, serving foreigners from Philippine soil, and is now criminal. The domestic regime faces inward, serving Filipinos, and remains lawful.

• E-games — online casino games and sports betting offered by PAGCOR licensees and their gaming system administrators. The fee was cut to 30% of gross gaming revenue effective 1 January 2025, down from 35%, explicitly to pull grey-market operators into the licensed system; integrated-resort e-games pay 25%.
• PIGO (Philippine Inland Gaming Operators) — introduced by PAGCOR in 2018, tied to an existing land-based property, offering remote play only to registered Filipino residents aged 21 and above. Applicants need ₱100 million minimum capitalisation and at least ten years of gaming experience.
• E-bingo and bingo grantees — electronic bingo in licensed venues and its online extension, licensed separately.
• E-sabong (online cockfighting) — banned since 2022 by President Duterte after dozens of cockfighting enthusiasts disappeared, and the ban still stands. Live cockfighting in licensed arenas remains legal.

Two supply-side controls matter more than the fee rate. PAGCOR has issued no new online gaming licence since a board resolution of 1 March 2024, entertaining only applications filed before that date — so the licensed market is a closed set. PAGCOR’s own March 2026 fee memorandum went to 65 licensed gaming system administrators; the chairman put the number of licensed online gaming sites and apps at over 70 in August 2025. And a minimum guaranteed fee of ₱9 million a month (about US$150,000), benchmarked on ₱30 million of monthly GGR, now applies to gaming system administrators offering electronic casino games — payable whether or not the benchmark is reached, designed to stop revenue under-declaration and expected to consolidate the market. Note the date carefully, because most coverage still carries the old one: the first tranche was announced for 1 April 2026, then deferred on 31 March 2026 to 1 June 2026, with the second tranche (₱10.5 million a month against a ₱35 million benchmark) pushed from 1 October 2026 to 1 January 2027. PAGCOR cited the “current economic crisis” — a regulator softening a fee increase in the same year its fee base is contracting.

What did the 2025 crackdown actually change?

It removed gambling from public space and from the payments layer, without banning a single legal product. Four measures landed inside eight weeks in mid-2025, and together they are the reason 2026 revenue is falling.

1. Billboards. A PAGCOR memorandum of 7 July 2025 ordered all licensees, suppliers, system administrators and venue operators to dismantle every billboard and out-of-home gambling advertisement — including on trains, buses, jeepneys and taxis — by 15 August 2025, with an inventory due 16 July. Only institutional and responsible-gaming campaigns survive, subject to approval.
2. Advertising standards. PAGCOR signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ad Standards Council on 16 July 2025 to vet gambling advertising. Surviving out-of-home material must carry the tagline “Gambling can be addictive. Know when to stop” and keep a 200-metre buffer from schools and churches.
3. Payments. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ordered e-wallets to remove direct gambling links on 14 August 2025, fully implemented by 17 August. GCash and Maya are how most Filipinos pay for anything; unlinking them added friction to every deposit.
4. Identity. Registrants must now complete know-your-customer checks before any deposit — name, contact details, a government-issued ID and a live selfie holding it — with biometric and facial-recognition verification, continuous player monitoring, mandatory supplier accreditation and online self-exclusion facilities layered on top.

None of this made anything illegal. It made legal gambling harder to see, harder to fund and harder to enter anonymously. First-quarter 2026 GGR fell 15.87%. PAGCOR chairman Alejandro Tengco has pointed at the Middle East conflict, rising living costs squeezing lower-middle-income players, and the e-wallet delinking itself, and in June 2026 warned the full-year fall could reach 19% — a 2026 range of ₱320–350 billion against 2025’s ₱396.14 billion. Note who is forecasting: the regulator whose fee income falls with that number. No published data separates the regulatory effect from the macroeconomic one, and anyone claiming a clean split has guessed.

Could online gambling be banned outright?

It is being seriously debated and nothing has passed. On 11 February 2026 the Senate committee on games and amusement, chaired by Senator Erwin Tulfo, resumed hearings on a package filed under the banner of an Anti-Online Gambling Act, covering Senate Bill Numbers 30, 47, 142, 508, 686, 708 and 1304. The proposals range from tighter restriction to outright prohibition, with debate focused on cutting access through apps, social media and payment channels.

The honest status line: these are bills, not law. PAGCOR used the same hearing to announce stricter advertising controls and tougher KYC — the familiar move of a regulator tightening voluntarily to argue that statute is unnecessary. Do not treat any of the seven as being in force, and be wary of pages that do.

Who else regulates gambling besides PAGCOR?

Three separate tracks, and confusing them is the most common error in Philippine gambling coverage. PAGCOR does not license lotteries, and it does not license the economic zones.

Who may legally gamble in the Philippines, and who pays tax?

Anyone aged 21 or over who is not a student, a serving member of the Armed Forces, or a government employee — and foreign visitors face no residency bar in land-based casinos. Section 14 of PD 1869 has barred three categories from casinos since 1983: government officials connected directly with the operation of government or its agencies; members of the Armed Forces including Army, Navy, Air Force or Constabulary; and persons under 21 or students of any school, college or university in the Philippines. A 22-year-old undergraduate is excluded by a 1983 decree, not by age.

That prohibition was widened dramatically on 19 January 2026, when the Civil Service Commission issued Resolution 2600111. It bars every official and employee of national government, local government units, autonomous regional governments, state and local universities and colleges, and chartered government corporations from all gambling — land-based or sea-based, inside or outside the Philippines, during or outside office hours — and expressly includes online casinos, e-bingo and e-sabong. Mere presence in a casino is itself a violation unless on written official duty. Sanctions escalate from reprimand to suspension to dismissal.

Those last two rows are new and worth flagging. The Bureau of Internal Revenue issued RMC 57-2026 on 26 May 2026 to settle a long-running argument, holding that jackpot prizes — fixed and progressive — fall within the statutory definition of “winnings” and are taxed on the gross amount, with no deduction for service charges or commissions. It reaches casinos, bingo, slots, electronic gaming machines and table games, and the BIR was explicit that it applies to winnings from unlicensed operators too, on the principle that income from any source is taxable. Practitioners had previously argued the TRAIN provision was aimed at lotto and sweepstakes rather than at all gaming, so do not assume the ₱10,000 PCSO threshold maps identically onto every casino win.

The foreign-visitor position is therefore narrower than it looks. A tourist may walk into any licensed Philippine casino with no entry levy, no residency test and no visit cap — a lighter touch than Japan’s planned resident entry fee and visit limits. But a non-resident alien not engaged in trade or business here who hits a jackpot is withheld at 25%, five points above the resident rate. The door is open; the exit is taxed harder.

Will privatisation actually split the referee from the player?

Partly, eventually, and not on the timetable the headlines suggest. PAGCOR intends to sell the Casino Filipino branches, with the target held at late 2026 to 2027 as of December 2025 and a valuation estimated at ₱30–50 billion (roughly US$490–820 million). Legal-industry guidance published for 2025 puts the realistic date closer to 2028. In June 2026, PAGCOR said it was still awaiting Palace guidance on separating its regulatory and casino functions — the position of an agency waiting for a decision, not executing one.

The bill that would go further is Senate Bill 2814, sponsored by Senator Grace Poe and cleared by the Senate Committee on Games and Amusements in May 2026, now awaiting plenary debate. It would split the dual mandate outright: an independent Philippine Gaming Commission as sole regulator, a five-member board barred from holding financial ties to gaming operators, PIGO and e-games licences harmonised into one framework within 24 months, and Casino Filipino corporatised and floated on the Philippine Stock Exchange within 36 months of the law taking effect. Read the last clause closely, though — the bill has the government retaining a minimum 30% stake in the listed casino company. Even the most ambitious separation on the table leaves the state holding equity in an operator its new commission would regulate. It is not law. Until it is, the honest reading of the privatisation push is the one the accounts support: PAGCOR is exiting a business it is losing — Casino Filipino revenue fell 20.95% in 2025 while its licensees grew 30% — at the last moment it can still be sold well.

How does the Philippine model compare with other countries?

Among the major regulated gambling markets, the Philippines is the clearest case of a national regulator that also operates casinos and takes a percentage of its own licensees’ gross gaming revenue. Macau and Singapore regulate operators they do not own; Japan’s race codes are state-run but supervised by ministries that do not license private casino rivals. Set against the other regimes we track, the Philippine difference is structural rather than one of strictness.

Japan and the Philippines end up in a similar place from opposite directions. Japan keeps a criminal ban and lets a ¥15.7 trillion pachinko industry live outside it as an “amusement”; the Philippines legalises openly and books the proceeds. Neither has a clean line between the state and the house — but only one writes the number down in its annual report. Brazil, by contrast, taxes at arm’s length: its regulator does not get richer when its licensees do. The full map is in our country-by-country gambling laws hub.

Why do the sources disagree about Philippine gambling law?

Because several distinct things get called “Philippine gaming revenue”, and because three of the most-quoted dates have either moved or were never settled. The traps, in order of how often they produce a wrong sentence:

• “Philippine gaming revenue” means at least three numbers. ₱396.14 billion is what the whole industry won from players in 2025. ₱106.03 billion is what PAGCOR the corporation earned (₱95.15 billion of it from gaming operations, the remaining ₱10.88 billion from interest and service fees). ₱66.95 billion is its contribution to government. The largest is nearly six times the smallest, and they are routinely swapped.
• Casino Filipino has two different 2025 numbers, and both are right. ₱12.52 billion is what its venues won from players — a gross gaming revenue figure, which is why it is comparable to the ₱396.14 billion national total. ₱10.38 billion is the revenue those venues booked on PAGCOR’s own income statement, which is why it is the figure comparable to the ₱53.33 billion fee line. Use the first against the market and the second against PAGCOR’s accounts; never mix them.
• What PAGCOR gives the Treasury is not one number either. The widely quoted ₱5.67 billion is a dividend, remitted in May 2026 out of 2025 net earnings. It is nowhere near the whole transfer. PAGCOR’s total 2025 contributions to nation-building were ₱66.95 billion, of which ₱45.19 billion went to the National Treasury as the government’s statutory 50% share, alongside ₱4.76 billion of franchise tax, ₱907 million of corporate income tax, ₱2.26 billion to the Philippine Sports Commission and ₱12.77 billion earmarked for socio-civic programmes. Quote the ₱5.67 billion on its own and you understate the state’s 2025 take by an order of magnitude.
• Those two figures reconcile exactly — and the reconciliation tells you what the state is really paid on. PAGCOR’s 2025 gaming revenue was ₱95.15 billion. The reported franchise tax of ₱4.76 billion is 5.00% of it. The reported government share of ₱45.19 billion is 50.0% of what remains after that tax — ₱95.15bn less ₱4.76bn is ₱90.39bn, and half of that is ₱45.20bn (16Best analysis). The statutory 50% is therefore computed on gaming revenue net of franchise tax, not on gross revenue and not on profit. Which is the spine restated in the Treasury’s own ledger: the government’s cut, like PAGCOR’s, tracks what licensees win, not how well they are policed.
• The dividend, by contrast, does not reconcile — and we say so rather than round it away. PAGCOR and the wire copy describe the ₱5.67 billion as equivalent to 50% of 2025 net earnings. That implies a dividend base of ₱11.34 billion, which is ₱6.13 billion below the ₱17.47 billion net income PAGCOR reported for the same year; the remittance is 32.5% of reported net income, not 50% (16Best analysis). We flag this as unexplained by the public releases, not as wrongdoing — dividend bases under RA 7656 are routinely adjusted for reserves, prior-year items and non-cash entries, and PAGCOR has not published the bridge. One more caution: the ₱5.67 billion appears to sit outside the ₱66.95 billion contributions total, since the published components of that total already add to about ₱65.98 billion without it. Do not add the two.
• The state lottery is in none of them. PCSO, chartered under RA 1169, sold ₱64.86 billion in 2025 — and that is gross sales, or handle, not revenue, so it cannot simply be added to a GGR figure. Any sentence beginning “Filipinos gambled” that cites only PAGCOR is incomplete.
• The RA 12312 signing date. The enrolled act carries an approval date of 23 October 2025, but the signing was announced and reported a week later, so 29 and 30 October both circulate as the “signed” date. We write October 2025 rather than pick one.
• The RA 12312 first-offence fine is reported two ways. Several news summaries give a range of ₱300,000 to ₱15 million. The statutory text of Section 13 says a fine of not less than ₱15 million, with no stated ceiling on a first offence. We follow the statute, and this page’s penalty table reflects it — but if you are relying on the number, read Section 13 yourself.
• Fee deadlines move. The minimum guaranteed fee is still widely written up as effective 1 April 2026. PAGCOR’s board approved a two-month deferral at its meeting of 26 March 2026, in a memorandum dated 30 March and reported on 31 March: the first tranche now runs from 1 June 2026, and the second tranche — ₱10.5 million a month against a ₱35 million benchmark — moves from 1 October 2026 to 1 January 2027. Any page still saying April is running on pre-deferral copy.
• The privatisation date. PAGCOR’s own target is late 2026 to 2027; legal-industry guidance says around 2028; in June 2026 the agency said it was awaiting Palace guidance. We give the range and note that no binding date exists.
• Licensed by whom. A “Philippine gaming licence” may come from PAGCOR, CEZA or APECO, and the last two are lawful only within their own economic zones. Sites conflate the three constantly.
• Passed is not in force. The seven Senate bills heard on 11 February 2026 are proposals. EO 74 is executed. RA 12312 is in force. CSC Resolution 2600111 is in force. Anything else described as “the new Philippine gambling law” deserves a citation check.

One last trap, and it is the quiet one. Peso figures on this page are the primary ones; dollar equivalents use roughly ₱61 to the US dollar, the rate implied by the 2026 conversions in PAGCOR’s own releases and the trade press — ₱87.60 billion reported as US$1.42 billion, ₱5.67 billion as US$92 million. Sources converting 2025 full-year figures used closer to ₱60, which is why the same ₱396.14 billion is published as both US$6.44 billion and US$6.61 billion depending on the date of the conversion. A five-peso move shifts any dollar figure here by about 8% on its own. Cite the pesos.

Key takeaways

• Gambling is legal and licensed — casinos, domestic online, bingo, lottery and live cockfighting — with a ₱396.14 billion market in 2025.
• The referee is also a player, but that is the smaller problem. Casino Filipino is 3.16% of national GGR; the structural issue is that 89.1% of PAGCOR gaming revenue is a cut of the licensees it polices.
• Enforcement costs the enforcer. Sustain the first quarter’s 22.43% e-games decline and PAGCOR’s ₱53.33 billion fee basket sheds roughly ₱12 billion — more than the ₱10.38 billion its own casinos earned it all year (16Best analysis).
• The law is an instrument, not a boundary. RA 11590 taxed offshore gaming in 2021; EO 74 shut it at the end of 2024; RA 12312 criminalised it in October 2025 and repealed the tax law.
• Domestic online survived the offshore ban and added ₱46.46 billion in 2025, 1.22 times banned POGO’s 2024 revenue — arithmetic, not proven causation.
• Illegal numbers games carry the heaviest sentences: up to 20 years for a protector under RA 9287, against 12 years maximum for a third offshore-gaming offence under RA 12312.
• Three regulators, not one: PAGCOR, PCSO and the CEZA and APECO economic zones — and an APECO licence at about US$40,000 a year plus a 2% gaming levy sits beside PAGCOR’s 30% of GGR, a variable rate roughly 15 times lighter.
• Eligibility is narrower than the age limit implies: 21-plus, but students, Armed Forces members and, since 19 January 2026, every government employee are barred — the last group even from standing in a casino.
• Privatisation is real but late, and partial. A 2027 sale would split referee from player 44 years into a 50-year franchise, and it sells the 10.9%, not the 89.1%. Even Senate Bill 2814, the furthest-reaching proposal on the table, would keep the government holding a minimum 30% of the floated casino company — and it is not law.

Frequently asked questions

Is gambling legal in the Philippines?

Yes. Land-based casinos, licensed online casino and sports betting for residents aged 21 and over, bingo, the state lottery run by PCSO and licensed live cockfighting are all legal. The operator must hold a licence from PAGCOR, PCSO or a special economic zone authority such as CEZA or APECO. Betting with any unlicensed operator is a criminal offence, and offshore gaming operations have been banned outright since Republic Act 12312 was signed in October 2025.

Is PAGCOR both the regulator and a casino operator?

Yes. Presidential Decree 1869, signed on 11 July 1983 and extended to 11 July 2033 by Republic Act 9487, makes PAGCOR the national gaming regulator and gives it a franchise to operate casinos, which it does through the Casino Filipino chain. In 2025, 10.9% of PAGCOR gaming revenue came from its own casinos and 89.1% from fees charged to operators it licenses. PAGCOR is targeting privatisation of Casino Filipino for late 2026 to 2027, valued at 30 to 50 billion pesos, though legal guidance suggests 2028 is more realistic and in June 2026 PAGCOR said it was still awaiting Palace guidance.

Are POGOs banned in the Philippines?

Yes. President Marcos announced the ban in his State of the Nation Address on 22 July 2024, Executive Order 74 of 5 November 2024 required all offshore gaming operations to cease by 31 December 2024, and Republic Act 12312, the Anti-POGO Act, was signed in October 2025 to criminalise them. Penalties run from 6 to 8 years imprisonment and a fine of not less than 15 million pesos on a first offence up to 10 to 12 years and a fine of up to 50 million pesos on a third. The act also repealed Republic Act 11590, the 2021 law that taxed offshore gaming.

Is online gambling legal for Filipinos?

Yes, on PAGCOR-licensed platforms only, and only for residents aged 21 and over. The licence families are e-games, PIGO and e-bingo. PAGCOR charges 30% of gross gaming revenue, cut from 35% on 1 January 2025, with 25% for integrated-resort e-games, and has issued no new online licence since 1 March 2024. Online cockfighting, or e-sabong, has been banned since 2022. Seven Senate bills proposing tighter rules or an outright ban were heard on 11 February 2026 but none has become law.

What is the legal gambling age in the Philippines?

21. Section 14 of Presidential Decree 1869 also bars students of any school, college or university in the Philippines regardless of age, along with members of the Armed Forces and government officials connected with the operation of government. Civil Service Commission Resolution 2600111 of 19 January 2026 went further, prohibiting all government officials and employees from any gambling including online play, on or off duty, with mere presence in a casino counting as a violation.

Do you pay tax on gambling winnings in the Philippines?

Yes, in defined cases. PCSO lottery and sweepstakes prizes above 10,000 pesos carry a 20% final withholding tax under the National Internal Revenue Code as amended by the TRAIN law, while prizes of 10,000 pesos or less are exempt. The Bureau of Internal Revenue clarified in Revenue Memorandum Circular 57-2026, issued on 26 May 2026, that casino jackpot prizes are also subject to final withholding tax on the gross amount: 20% for residents and 25% for non-resident aliens not engaged in trade or business in the Philippines. Operators are taxed separately, with PAGCOR gaming income covered by a 5% franchise tax in place of corporate income tax and VAT.

Sources

• Official Gazette — Presidential Decree No. 1869, s. 1983 (PAGCOR Charter)
• PAGCOR — Republic Act No. 9487 (franchise extension to 2033)
• LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9287, illegal numbers games (2 April 2004)
• LawPhil — Republic Act No. 12312, Anti-POGO Act of 2025
• Presidential Communications Office — PBBM signs into law Anti-POGO Act of 2025
• LawPhil — Executive Order No. 74, s. 2024 (immediate POGO ban)
• Philippine Daily Inquirer — Violators of anti-POGO law face up to 12 years in prison, P50-M fine
• PAGCOR — PAGCOR again slashes e-Games fees, now at 30%
• PAGCOR — PH gross gaming revenues up 6.39% to P396.14B in 2025
• PAGCOR — PAGCOR and Ad Standards Council ink MOU to regulate gambling ads (16 July 2025)
• Philstar — Gambling operators told to take down billboards by August 15
• Philippine Daily Inquirer — PAGCOR moratorium on new online gaming licences in force since March 2024
• Philippine News Agency — PAGCOR imposes stricter online gambling regulations
• Inside Asian Gaming — Philippines resumes Senate hearing on online gambling (11 February 2026)
• Civil Service Commission — Total gambling ban among civil servants (CSC Resolution 2600111)
• Chambers and Partners — Gaming Law 2025: Philippines
• Asia Gaming Brief — PAGCOR maintains target for late-2026 to 2027 Casino Filipino privatisation
• BusinessWorld — PAGCOR awaiting Palace guidance on separation of regulatory, casino functions
• GGRAsia — Philippines 1Q GGR down 16% from a year ago
• Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office — Year-End Accomplishment Report CY 2025
• Philstar — Casino jackpots taxable as winnings, BIR says (RMC 57-2026)
• Philippine News Agency — BIR: Jackpot prize from casinos, gambling subject to withholding tax
• The Manila Times — Pagcor 2025 revenues fall as land-based earnings soften (revenue breakdown)
• Philippine Daily Inquirer — Pagcor remits P5.67B from 2025 earnings to Treasury
• Inside Asian Gaming — PAGCOR defers Minimum Guaranteed Fee by two months (31 March 2026)
• GGRAsia — New minimum guaranteed fees for gaming system administrators
• Supreme Court E-Library — Republic Act No. 12312, full text (approved 23 October 2025)
• PH Gaming Intel — Senate committee approves PAGCOR privatisation bill (SB 2814)
• Civil Service Commission — CSC Resolution No. 2600111, full text (PDF)
• CEZA — Land-based and interactive gaming
• PAGCOR — PAGCOR 2025 revenues fall 5% to Php106.03B (full revenue and contributions breakdown)
• PAGCOR — PH industry GGR falls 16% to Php87.6B in Q1 2026
• Inside Asian Gaming — Philippines licensed casinos suffer 9.6% fall in GGR in 2025 (segment split: online Php201.12B, casinos Php182.50B)
• Inside Asian Gaming — Tengco warns Philippine GGR could fall by up to 19% in 2026
• Philstar — PAGCOR remits P5.67 billion to government coffers for 2025
• LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9487, full text (20 June 2007)
• GGRAsia — Philippines launches new gaming jurisdiction in Aurora (APECO fees and 2% gaming levy)