MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is no longer issuing work permits to foreign workers employed in Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) firms.
The DOLE’s National Capital Region (NCR) office announced that it stopped accepting applications for alien employment permits for POGO workers since May 2.
“In the interest of service and relative to the memorandum issued by the DOLE-Bureau of Local Employment entitled ‘Official and Updated List of Provisional Licensees, Regular Licensees and Authorized Providers from PAGCOR’ please be informed that this Office shall not accept Alien Employment Permit applications with POGO License in view of the issuance of Internet Gaming Licensing Regulations, effective 02 May 2024,” DOLE-NCR director Sarah Mirasol said.
According to Mirasol, they will only accept applications for regular internet gaming licenses, provisional internet gaming licenses or with notice of approval of the aforementioned license issued by Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) and authorizations or notice of approval of the authorizations for gaming content providers and support providers.
The DOLE, she said, will also accept accreditations or notice of approval of accreditation of the following service providers: local gaming agents, special class of BPO (business process outsource), training program providers, independent testing laboratories, probity checkers and accredited hubs.
Mirasol said licenses, authorizations and accreditations or their notices of approval shall also be cross-checked with the list provided by PAGCOR on their website or the list that the state gaming agency has been regularly providing to verify their authenticity.
“Companies which submitted applications with the aforementioned documents, but whose names are not on the list provided by PAGCOR shall not be accepted,” she added.
Several groups have been pushing for the closure of POGOs in the country due to their social cost. In the past, POGOs have been linked to criminal activities including scam operations, human and sex trafficking, illegal immigration and employment, kidnapping and other heinous crimes.