PAGCOR app targets illegal half of PH market

PAGCOR is launching a mobile app that lets players verify whether an online casino holds a valid Philippine licence. The move comes as the regulator publicly confirmed that around 50% of online gaming sites accessible in the Philippines operate without authorisation. The app is a consumer-facing tool, not an enforcement mechanism. PAGCOR has simultaneously ruled out issuing new e-gaming operator licences, signalling it wants to consolidate the licensed base rather than expand it.

The timing is pointed. PAGCOR reported a 20.33% year-on-year drop in gross gaming revenue for Q2 2026. That decline almost certainly reflects, at least in part, player money flowing to unlicensed sites that are not captured in any official figure.

Half the accessible market sitting outside the regulatory perimeter is a structural problem, not a compliance footnote. The revenue drop gives it a financial dimension that PAGCOR cannot ignore and that the government will notice, because PAGCOR remittances fund public programmes.