(Bloomberg) — The Philippine central bank has ordered mobile wallets, payment applications and other supervised institutions to remove links to online gambling platforms.
The financial firms have 48 hours to take down icons redirecting to Internet betting, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan said at a Senate hearing on Thursday, citing a decision from the central bank’s policy-making Monetary Board.
Senators are tackling proposals to either restrict or ban online gambling amid concerns over debt and addiction. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier said a ban could stoke illegal online betting.
E-wallets like GCash, owned by fintech unicorn Mynt and valued at $5 billion, have been instrumental in online gambling’s growth, and legislators are trying to rein in the industry, which has flourished in recent years.
On Thursday, Philippine online gaming leader DigiPlus Interactive Corp. said its profit jumped 30% to 4.2 billion pesos ($74 million) in the second quarter on new products. That brought first-half net income to 8.4 billion pesos, up 61% from a year ago, with revenue rising 47%.
The company’s performance reflects continued growth in its retail games segment, as well as contributions from new games and licenses, DigiPlus said.
DigiPlus was the world’s best performing gaming stock in June before tighter regulations dampened investor sentiment, trimming its year-to-date gain to 6.6% as of Thursday.
DigiPlus, which is set to replace Bloomberry Resorts Corp. in the Philippines’ benchmark stock index from next week, said the company remains committed to responsible business practices.
–With assistance from Neil Jerome Morales.
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