PAGCOR says roughly half of online gaming sites accessed in the Philippines are illegal

PAGCOR chairman Alejandro Tengco said around 50% of online gaming sites accessed in the Philippines are illegal. The statement is real and comes from the regulator's own announcement. It should still be reported as an estimate, because the release does not publish a dataset, sampling method or calculation that readers can reproduce.

The phrase accessed in the Philippines also sets the denominator. It refers to sites reached by users, not necessarily half of operators, player accounts, deposits, wagers or gross gaming revenue. Converting it into a claim that half the market's money is illegal would go beyond what PAGCOR said.

PAGCOR says it intends to launch an application before the end of 2026. The stated purpose is to make licensed sites easier to identify and to steer players toward operators that are subject to regulatory requirements and player safeguards. The announcement does not provide a download link, release version or live service date.

That distinction matters because policy announcements often travel as completed technology. Here, the regulator has announced an objective and timeframe. A public release, technical specification, supported-platform list and privacy explanation are still needed before the app can be evaluated as an operating protection tool.

The proposed app is not PAGCOR's first public verification mechanism. The agency says it launched the PAGCOR Guarantee page in 2025 so users could check whether an online gaming provider holds a licence. The new tool is presented as an extension of that effort rather than the first official operator directory.

A directory can reduce information friction, but it does not by itself prevent an illegal site from copying a logo, using a similar domain or advertising to the same audience. The reliability of the app will depend on current licence data, unambiguous domains and a process for correcting false or outdated matches.

PAGCOR connects licensed play to a process for resolving disputes. That is a more practical distinction than branding alone: a regulated operator is expected to sit within a framework where player complaints can be received and acted upon. An illegal operator may be outside that channel even when its website appears polished.

The announcement does not promise that every dispute will be resolved in a player's favour or specify the app's complaint workflow. It says licensed sites offer a redress mechanism. The eventual product will need to make the difference between verification, complaint intake and adjudication clear to users.

PAGCOR says it is working with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the National Telecommunications Commission and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center on illegal operators, including the payment channels they use. This moves the enforcement lens beyond blocking a visible webpage.

Payments can be a point of persistence when domains change. They can also create false certainty if a provider, processor or transaction is labelled without an order or evidentiary basis. The release identifies a line of coordination, not a completed action against a named bank, wallet or payment company.

The most valuable follow-up is a methodology note. Readers need to know the observation period, what counts as a site, whether mirrors and domains are deduplicated, how access is measured and whether the denominator covers only casino products or a wider online-gaming universe.

Until that appears, the careful formulation is both strong and limited: the Philippine regulator estimates that roughly half of accessed online gaming sites are illegal and plans a licensing app before year-end. The estimate is important evidence of official concern, but it is not an audited market-share statistic.