Marcos vows stricter online gambling rules during Manila Tech Summit

On Tuesday, Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. vowed to tighten regulations on online gambling during his speech at the Manila Tech Summit 2025.

The President cited growing concerns about consumer vulnerabilities and threats to financial stability posed by the fast-growing industry.

He announced that his administration has started suspending gambling features in e-wallets and websites, aligning with recent BSP orders for financial institutions to remove these features.

Civil society groups and lawmakers have been advocating for stricter oversight of online gambling platforms due to their social costs.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expects measures such as bans on credit card use for betting, biometric verification, transaction limits, and self-exclusion tools to be implemented soon.

Alongside these crackdowns, Mr. Marcos emphasized the need to accelerate the Philippines' shift towards a digital economy, noting that it created 11.3 million jobs in 2024.

The administration aims to strengthen consumer safeguards through laws like the Internet Transactions Act and Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act while promoting the country as a regional hub for digital innovation.