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The Philippines Shuts Its Door to New Online Casinos

A casino financier wearing rings and with painted fingernails, counts money she collected from a gambler only moments before, in Angeles city, north of Manila, Philippines, May 25, 2015. (Photo: REUTERS/Erik De Castro)
File photo: A casino financier wearing rings and with painted fingernails, counts money she collected from a gambler only moments before, in Angeles city, north of Manila, Philippines, May 25, 2015. (Photo: REUTERS/Erik De Castro)

By Andreo Calonzo

Philippines — The Philippines is keeping its door shut for new online casinos to avoid a proliferation of the industry similar to what happened in Cambodia, its gaming chief said Tuesday.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. is regulating the issuance of new licenses for both land-based and online casinos. “We want to rationalize so that everybody with a license has a good chance of being successful,” Chairman Andrea Domingo said in a forum in Manila.

The Southeast Asian nation doesn’t want to benefit from Cambodia’s ban on online casinos, and is monitoring if gaming service providers here are hiring workers from Cambodia, Domingo said.

Online casinos banned in Cambodia may relocate to the Philippines and boost office demand, property consultant Santos Knight Frank senior director Morgan McGilvray said in October.

© 2019 Bloomberg L.P.