PAGCOR's licensing map for the Philippines' $6.3bn gambling market
EGR sets out how the Philippines regulates casinos, online gambling and betting verticals after banning offshore POGO operators from 2025.
The Philippines ranks among Southeast Asia's largest gambling markets, with a population of roughly 116.8m and GDP of about $487.1bn in 2025, equivalent to some $4,170 per person, according to EGR.
The country has run a broad domestic gambling industry for decades, spanning land-based casinos, bingo halls, sports betting, lottery products and online gambling, EGR reports.
It was also long known internationally for its offshore online gambling regime, under which locally licensed operators — POGOs — served players outside the Philippines rather than its own population.
That model was shut down after a string of regulatory and reputational problems, and offshore operations have been prohibited since 2025, EGR reports. The country's online gambling rules now apply only to operators serving Philippine players.
Despite losing the offshore business, the domestic market remains sizeable. Total gambling gross gaming revenue reached approximately $6.3bn in 2025, per EGR's figures.
Online and electronic gambling made up the largest slice of that total, generating roughly $3.2bn, close to half of all GGR. Licensed casinos contributed around $2.9bn, or about 46% of the market.
Regulation of the sector, overseen by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, blends a handful of core consumer-facing licences with separate authorisation tracks for specific verticals and for B2B suppliers.
The main casino licence sits within PAGCOR's integrated resort framework and allows a broad range of verticals subject to further approval — table games, slot machines, poker, sports betting, bingo, live casino, and online products including online casino and online sports betting.
Two further categories cover standalone gambling venues. A Standard Gambling Venue licence permits a single principal vertical, chosen from options such as slots paired with online casino, bingo (land-based or online), sports betting, online poker or numbers-based lottery games; any online element needs its own approval for the domain, website and platform used.
A Unified Gambling Venue licence, by contrast, requires operators to run at least two approved verticals together. Slots combined with online casino and online bingo form the compulsory base, with land-based bingo, sports betting, online poker and lottery games available as additional, cost-free options — again with separate sign-off needed for any online platform.
Land-based poker can be run under its own dedicated licence, and both venue categories can also add a separate poker authorisation.
Suppliers to the industry face their own accreditation regime depending on their function, covering system administrators, game providers and aggregators, payment service providers, player identification system vendors, testing and certification labs, equipment storage operators and certain categories of gambling employee, EGR notes.
Other verticals sit entirely outside this framework. Cockfighting is licensed locally, with cockpit numbers generally capped by the relevant municipality or city. Horseracing requires a Congressional franchise alongside approvals from the Philippine Racing Commission and the Games and Amusements Board. National lottery products remain a monopoly of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, leaving private firms limited to running authorised sales outlets.
Licensing obligations vary sharply by category. Casino operators face detailed resort, gaming-floor and technical requirements, including a cap limiting total gambling floor space within an integrated resort. Standard and Unified Gambling Venue holders must instead meet minimum capacity, venue and operational standards, with extra conditions layered on for online operations and poker rooms.