{"id":316215,"date":"2025-08-04T03:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T03:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/316215\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T03:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T03:55:12","slug":"inside-the-philippines-online-gambling-epidemic-its-worse-than-pogos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/316215\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Philippines\u2019 online gambling epidemic: \u2018it\u2019s worse than Pogos\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In the dim glow of his bedroom, Clark* used to spend up to 18 hours a day gambling, his world distilled to the spinning reels and flashing lights of online betting apps.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">What began as casual wagers \u2013 just a few hundred pesos here, a thousand there \u2013 quickly escalated. One day, Clark placed a 7,000-peso (US$120) bet that, in a dizzying stroke of fortune, ballooned into 1.7 million pesos (US$30,000).<\/p>\n<p>With that huge win, he thought his luck had changed. Instead, it marked the beginning of a spiralling addiction that highlights the urgent, unaddressed crisis of online gambling gripping <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/philippines?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">the Philippines<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Clark, who is employed in the business process outsourcing sector and works remotely, found himself betting between tasks. \u201cMy productivity really suffered. I only took breaks just to eat or sleep,\u201d he told This Week in Asia.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Clark\u2019s relationship with gambling began early, with bets on off-track horse racing as a teenager. Physical casinos came next, but the thrill soon gave way to paranoia: he feared being watched and marked as a high-roller.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cAlthough I wanted to go back, I was getting paranoid that they were monitoring me through the cameras and knew that I was a big spender. That\u2019s why I transitioned to gambling online,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A social media post by polling firm WR Numero, which recently found that nearly one-third of Filipinos had either gambled online or expressed their desire to try. Photo: X\/@WR_Numero\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/356feb53-58c3-4e44-a155-8c81712b4e92_a75923cf.jpg\" title=\"A social media post by polling firm WR Numero, which recently found that nearly one-third of Filipinos had either gambled online or expressed their desire to try. Photo: X\/@WR_Numero\"\/>A social media post by polling firm WR Numero, which recently found that nearly one-third of Filipinos had either gambled online or expressed their desire to try. Photo: X\/@WR_Numero<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the dim glow of his bedroom, Clark* used to spend up to 18 hours a day gambling,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[115114,96794,83454,115110,115112,105,115115,96791,218,115116,96793,14966,115113,96792,115109,115111,115108,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-316215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-bong-go","9":"tag-bridges-of-hope","10":"tag-capstone-intel","11":"tag-claire-castro","12":"tag-ferdinand-marcos-jnr","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-joel-villanueva","15":"tag-jon-ty","16":"tag-mental-health","17":"tag-news5","18":"tag-philippine-amusement-and-gaming-corporation","19":"tag-philippines","20":"tag-pigos","21":"tag-pogos","22":"tag-reagan-praferosa","23":"tag-recovering-gamblers-of-the-philippines","24":"tag-risa-hontiveros","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114968482455924694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}