Up to 14 business-to-business (B2B) services companies that work with online gaming operators from overseas but are licensed by the Philippines should be spared that country’s online offshore gaming business ban, says Alejandro Tengco (pictured in a file photo). He said such businesses employed more than 9,000 Filipinos.

The head of the country’s regulator the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) told ABS-CBN News that the relevant companies – known locally as ones from the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) sector – were not directly involved in gambling.

Mr Tengco said that instead, the relevant BPOs provided support services for gaming companies based respectively in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the United States. He added that such businesses were not classified as gaming licensees.

On July 22, the Philippine leader, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, said that Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) – now known as Internet Gaming Licensees (IGLs) – would need to end their business in that country by year-end.

But Mr Tengco said the existing BPOs serving overseas gaming companies – along with another six companies applying for BPO permits – should be spared. “Aside from the 12 or 14 [BPO] licensees as of today, we have another six applicants,” he noted.

The Pagcor chairman said he would make that suggestion at meetings with members of the Philippine cabinet in the coming days. According to the news outlet, he had already raised the matter with President Marcos.

Though Mr Tengco also said that if “they [politicians] say that it will just be used to mask IGLs, then I will respect and we follow” the will of the country’s leaders.

The Pagcor boss nonetheless suggested in his comments to the news outlet: “The big issue here really is as soon as we are able to successfully wind down [offshore gaming providers], the next challenge would be enforcement,” as a number of companies previously stripped of their licences for alleged infringements of conditions, were “still around” and operating illegally.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, a long-standing critic of offshore gaming operators, speaking in a separate ABS-CBN News interview on Tuesday, had voiced reservations about Mr Tengco’s suggested exception for certain BPOs.

“There’s a fine line between these service providers for gaming companies and also actual gaming companies,” the senator stated. “We don’t want a scenario wherein we allow that [exception for certain BPOs] but [they] eventually morph into a gaming company.”

President Marcos has ordered appropriate public agencies to assist Filipino workers who will be displaced by the offshore online gaming sector ban.

As of July 16, there were 38 IGL permit holders allowed to offer gaming to customers offshore, and seven provisional licensees, according to Pagcor. The regulator said that 43 licensees were currently operational.

Mr Tengco had told a Philippine Senate hearing on Monday that all 43 Internet gaming licenses covered by the ban directly employ more than 31,000 Filipino workers, while outsourcing firms holding special licenses employ some 8,000 to 9,000 Philippine nationals.

About 31,000 foreign workers would be affected once all 43 licensed Internet gaming operators are closed, he stated.