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The Almighty Buck

Filipinos Are Addicted to Online Gambling. So Is Their Government (msn.com) 27

Posted by msmash from the revenue-over-lives dept.
The Philippines became Asia's second-largest gambling hub after Macau last year as online betting proliferated across the archipelagic nation. Almost half of the country's 69 million working-age population is now registered on gambling apps, an exponential rise from less than half a million users in 2018. The government has become increasingly dependent on the industry.

Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. collects 30% of gross gaming revenue and has become the second-biggest revenue contributor among state-run companies after Land Bank of the Philippines. Revenue from online casino license fees is projected to reach $1 billion in 2025. More than 60 operators are regulated by the government.

Industry revenue almost tripled in 2024 from 2023 to 154.5 billion pesos. Revenue from internet betting eclipsed physical casinos for the first time this year. The central bank recently ordered e-wallets to remove links to betting sites, halving bets within days. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. rejected calls for a complete ban and said outlawing online betting would only spawn illicit operations that would be more difficult to eradicate.

Filipinos Are Addicted to Online Gambling. So Is Their Government More | Reply

Filipinos Are Addicted to Online Gambling. So Is Their Government

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  • 30%? It's already the most regressive tax known to mankind. But wadda ya gonna do? People want to gamble.

    • Most of the state lotteries in the US, take about 50%.

      • Most of the state lotteries in the US, take about 50%.

        Before the State Lottery, South Florida "numbers" games had a 90% payout.
        And the voters were promised that the revenue would be added to school funding (not replacing general revenue). The lottery folks lied.

        • It is the government, of course, they lied. People finally seem to be catching on to that scam. Governments throughout history have loved taxes that are not obvious to the taxed. That is why, politicians in the US keep pushing for a value added tax (VAT). The tax which can be quite high is hidden in the price of the item. It certainly works for gasoline taxes. No one really pays any attention to what fraction of the cost is really going to the government.
    • Have you looked at the taxes on cigarettes? https://www.salestaxhandbook.c... [salestaxhandbook.com]

  • I hear Elon will be selling Armageddon insurance from an office on Mars. The internet is breaking Earth.

    • I hear Elon will be selling Armageddon insurance from an office on Mars. The internet is breaking Earth.

      The Earth will be fine. Though the internet is breaking humanity. And possibly the current form of the biosphere, though I suspect there will be some form of life left. Earth's been through some pretty major biosphere shenanigans over the eons, and nothing has ridded it of the film of life that seems to cling to it through thick and thin. I further suspect that will remain true to some degree until such time as the sun expands to engulf the entire planet and scours the surface clean. Even then it will likel

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tablizer ( 95088 )

        Crazed herds of feral humans will scavenge the Earth for survivors to eat or [bleep].

  • And so is every US state government (Score:3)

    by cascadingstylesheet ( 140919 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2025 @05:46PM (#65696570) Journal

    Filipinos Are Addicted to Online Gambling. So Is Their Government

    And so is every US state government. Ever heard of the lottery?

    • I saw this stat not too long ago....Americans spend ~$100 billion on scratch-off lottery tickets in 2024....Just on scratch off tickets. By comparison something like $9 billion on movie tickets, maybe $19 billion on football ticks and merch, $58 billion on video games.

      All that money spent on pointless, scratch offs. Now add legal sports betting, national lottery stuff, illegal betting, etc . I am very happy the gambling gene skipped me.

    • Re:And so is every US state government (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dsgrntlxmply ( 610492 ) on Wednesday October 01, 2025 @06:04PM (#65696606)
      "Brought to you by the lottery. It's a sort of tax on people who weren't too good at math." -- Prairie Home Companion

      • "... weren't too good at math."

        The lottery is like sport betting and poker: Someone has to win. It's why lottery players, sometimes, can buy every ticket and still make a profit. (In poker and lotteries, the player wins a fixed percentage of the pot. In sport-betting, the agent must change the per-person payout/odds so that winning players do not win more than the pot.) That is very different to a casino where all players lose, frequently.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        "Brought to you by the lottery. It's a sort of tax on people who weren't too good at math." -- Prairie Home Companion

        The thing is, as you get older you realise that the lottery isn't a tax on people who can't do maths.

        It's actually a tax on hope.

        • "Brought to you by the lottery. It's a sort of tax on people who weren't too good at math." -- Prairie Home Companion

          The thing is, as you get older you realise that the lottery isn't a tax on people who can't do maths. It's actually a tax on hope.

          That's the rub, isn't it? Both the lottery and gambling in general are set up to prey on people's hope. As hopelessness rises, gambling becomes more widespread, and lottery tickets sell faster. Which, to the big decision makers in a society, is a winning combination, because it makes those dollars keep pouring into the hands of those that already have plenty.

          Maybe the real solution would be to set up societies that allow people hope for other things besides a lottery win or the day-dream of a gambling pay-o

    • Something has to replace the traditional sin taxes.

  • Kentucky introduced a lottery game that is literally pick a number between 1 and 15. It runs every 4 minutes. Odds against winning are obviously 15 to 1. The prizes vary, but the expected payout odds works out to between 9 and 10 to 1, (30-40% take out) depending on amount bet. It's the dumbest game, and the takeout should be illegal, but $2.1 billion per year in addictive voluntary taxation is hard for government to turn down.

  • My Filipina girlfriend has been loaning money to her friends for their gambling problems. I explained to her that she is enabling their addiction no differently than if you gave them money for drugs, and that being a friend means sometimes saying no. Hopefully she listens, because it really has gotten out of hand.

  • That's the joke I was looking for, as in the dead canary in the gambling mine. But the story expires thusly.

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