Online casino growth surges over 5,500%, fueling suicides, crimes, murders that destroy Pinoy families - Zubiri

Online casino growth surges over 5,500%, fueling suicides, crimes, murders that destroy Pinoy families - Zubiri

Online gambling has expanded at a speed regulators failed to match, with revenues jumping more than 5,500 percent in four years while losses piled up on wage earners, students and low-income families whose lives have been lost or destroyed by betting online.

At the start of the hearing on online gambling today, Sen. Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri laid out the case before the Committee on Games and Amusement, presenting figures that tracked the surge from the pandemic slump to today's volume and linking the trend to easy access through e-wallets that sit in the phones of most Filipinos.

"Mr. Chair, to illustrate: from 2020 to 2024, the industry grew by 5,564 percent. Unbelievable. And yet it is real," Zubiri noted.

He walked the panel through gross gaming revenues (GGRs) that rose from P8 billion in 2022 to P33.16 billion in 2023 and P135.71 billion in 2024, with P106.53 billion already logged in the first half of 2025, explaining that these numbers translate to money lost at home of many Filipino families.

Zubiri referred to the "shameful status" that the country is now the gambling capital of Asia, with 79 casinos surpassing Cambodia with 48, Macau with 47, Vietnam with 40 and South Korea with 32.

"Number one sa sugalan. Nakakahiya at nakakadismaya. At brick-and-mortar casinos pa lang po ito. With online gambling, baka lampas pa tayo sa number one," he added.

Zubiri put faces to the tragedies online families suffer from online gambling, including two instances in his home province of Bukidnon.

"Today, we will hear directly from some of these online gambling victims themselves. Their voices will remind us that online gambling is not just a policy issue. It is a crisis that destroys families, livelihoods and futures. We hope that their first-hand accounts will emphasize the urgency of eliminating online gambling once and for all," he noted.

He said there was a family from Bukidnon, who lost their son to suicide after he incurred an online gambling debt that he could not pay and a police corporal who robbed a convenience store at gunpoint, reportedly for his online gambling and stole P12,000 from the register before he was arrested.

In La Trinidad, he continued, a 22-year-old was reported to have committed suicide due to online gambling debts, and in Daanbantayan, Cebu, a man was reported to have murdered three people due to an argument over online gambling winnings.

And in Cebu City, he said an 18-year-old was arrested for killing a 45-year-old, also after arguing about online gambling winnings.

"These stories reveal the ugly truth of online gambling. It is not at all just fun and games, as the colorful advertisements would like us to believe," he stated.

His speech then shifted to who actually pays for the revenues of online gambling companies, with the senator stressing that the pressure falls on ordinary households and not on high rollers.

"But that is a generous view of a dire situation, because the truth is, that massive revenue is from the pockets of hardworking Filipino people. Not foreigners. Not rich people. Just regular working class people," he said.

"Sa mga casino, mga high-income high rollers po iyan. Pero sa online gambling, mga wage earners po yan. Mga jeepney driver. Mga tindero at tindera. Mga stay-at-home nanay. Pati mga estudyante, Mr. Chair," he added.

The committee also heard how the system makes gambling almost effortless, with seamless wallet links that let users bet again and again without leaving the house.

"The biggest culprit is the accessibility and the ease of transactions. Napakaganda po talaga ng integration ng digital wallets at ng mga online gambling sites. Napakadaling tumaya, mag-withdraw, mag-top up, at tumaya muli, kasi ilang click lang 'yan lahat online. Hindi mo na kailangan lumabas ng bahay. Napakabilis ng transactions. Napaka-convenient maglaro, mag-scatter," Zubiri explained.

"GCash alone has a userbase of about 94 million people. That is about 81 percent of our entire population. And of that 94 million, over 3 million users have availed of the GLoan, GGives, and GCredit services," he added.

"If you have GCash, Mr. Chair, you might know that they have a whole section dedicated to leisure and enjoyment, and under this umbrella, you will find a link to what they label as 'Games.' ... And if you lose and you run out of money on GCash, walang problema. You can apply for GCash loans para tuloy ang saya."

To underline the harm, Zubiri put survey and rehab data on record and tied them to stories families are now telling support groups and clinics.

"In 2023, the Capstone-Intel Corporation ran a survey on online betting, where they found that 64 percent of respondents are engaged in online gambling. No doubt, the number of online gamblers in 2025 has gone higher," he said.

"According to Bridges of Hope, a rehabilitation community with facilities across the country, 7 out of 10 clients that they treat now are for online gambling addiction," he said.

"Another support group, Recovering Gamblers of the Philippines, has also seen more online gamblers come in for help. In just two years, the composition of recovering clients changed from 60 percent online gamblers and 40 percent casino gamblers, to 90 percent online gamblers and 10 percent casino gamblers."

He noted that according to the World Health Organization, every high-risk gambler affects an average of six other people, "a chain effect of lives destroyed by online gambling."

He said the presence of agencies, experts and victims in the hearing would help shed light on both the value and dangers of the industry, expressing hope that the discussions would reveal the depth of the problem and point the way toward possible solutions.

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