Philippines legal poker background

Overall, gambling (and poker in particular) are legal in the Philippines based on the Presidential Decree No.1067-a of 1975. The Decree set up the work of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and outlines the framework for the legality of gambling. While there are no specific Philippine poker laws regulating the online area, the game is regulated by the Executive Order No.13 from 2017. According to it, all offshore and Filipino sites must receive a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) license from the PAGCOR that allows providing gambling services legally but only outside the Philippines. So an operator can obtain a local license, but it still won’t be able to accept Filipino players (being the case of the most famous Asian network: IDNPoker). However, the current legislation doesn’t fully cover offshore poker rooms, allowing them to operate within the country as long as they have an international license. This means that Filipino players can freely access any offshore sites that work in the Philippines.