Philippines🇵🇭: payment firms risk their licenses over disguised online casinos

Philippines🇵🇭: payment firms risk their licenses over disguised online casinos

Authorities detected numerous gambling operations operating under the guise of everyday service businesses.

➡️ How were they detected❓ Through transaction analysis and operational review: the payment schemes consisted of thousands of transactions for the same amount of 50 pesos (USD 0.8). In addition, the payments were made at night through merchants whose declared business activities did not involve nighttime operations.

➡️ Result: 8,000 merchants lost their licenses.

➡️ Context: the Philippine central bank (BSP) appears to be stepping up its oversight of payment firms. In a draft circular published in early September on the revision of the taxonomy and licensing system, responsibility for verifying merchants is assigned to payment operators. They will be responsible for collecting counterparty data and entering it into databases.

➡️ Reference: in 2025, digital payments already accounted for approximately 2/3 of retail transactions in the Philippines. In 2024, this figure reached 57%.

#news #Asia #illegalgambling

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