EDITORIAL — Back to e-sabong?

By now it’s clear that there’s no turning back on the total ban on Philippine offshore gaming operators, including their state-run version launched last year, the internet gaming licensee. POGOs and IGLs are winding down their operations for the full implementation of the ban by yearend.

The agency tasked to regulate POGOs, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., had opposed the ban, saying all that was needed to prevent their criminal activities was better regulation. Having indicted itself for regulatory failure in the case of offshore gaming, PAGCOR is now pushing for the revival of online cockfights or electronic sabong.

POGOs have dramatically illustrated the difficulty of regulating illegal activities online. Apart from the weak capability of the state to effectively monitor gaming transactions for accurate taxation, POGOs have been found to engage in numerous forms of cyberscams and defying laws regulating SIM cards. 

In the case of e-sabong, the online cockfights not only proved difficult to track, but also engendered armed violence. Relatives have yet to find out what happened to 34 cockfighting aficionados who went missing between 2021 and 2022. Three former policemen and six security guards at the Manila Arena cockpit have been arrested in connection with some of the cases, believed to be rooted in game-fixing.

In February this year, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said it was safe to presume that all the 34 missing sabungeros were victims of “mass murder.” The disappearances had prompted Rodrigo Duterte during his presidency to ban e-sabong in May 2022. With “mass murder” related to e-sabong unresolved, it’s flabbergasting that there is lobbying for the revival of online cockfights.

The lobbyists’ argument is that e-sabong would be conducted underground anyway, so why not legalize and regulate it? It was the same argument raised by those who opposed the ban on POGOs and IGLs. That’s like saying drug trafficking is being perpetrated anyway, so why not legalize it? Fortunately, several members of both chambers of Congress have expressed opposition to the revival of e-sabong.

Gambling has social costs; most states run gaming operations that can be regulated and properly taxed within a restricted environment. This is not the case with POGOs, IGLs and e-sabong. If a gaming operation easily defies regulation, it must be banned. And if it’s banned, those who defy the ban must be caught, prosecuted and punished.