MORE congressmen and senators have filed separate bills seeking to completely ban online gambling. It’s about time.

However, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he is inclined to support a plan by the Department of Finance (DOF) to impose new taxes on online gambling operators, provided the measure would be thoroughly studied “for the good of Filipino families.”

Then,  CitizenWatch Philippines, an advocacy group, called for strengthened regulation, rather than a total ban, of the online gambling industry, warning that a blanket prohibition would “create more problems.”

According to the movement,  the Philippines could benefit more from a “more balanced and forward-looking approach” to the issue. “What we need is stricter, smarter regulation—clear rules, modern tools, and responsible enforcement that protect our people while preserving public benefit,” CitizenWatch lead convener Orlando Oxales said. Really?

It seems the deadly lessons learned from the operations of POGO have not sunk in. And POGO was the premium online gambling that led to a series of kidnappings and deaths, but why is our government bent on supporting a “strictly-regulated” online gambling as if these were not done in e-sabong, e-bingo and now POGO?

Most everyone thought that e-sabong would be nothing like another cheap gambling entertainment for low-income households until several tricycle and jeepney drivers began finding themselves deep in debt with their e-wallets. Worse, in Pangasinan, one reportedly committed suicide out of desperation, out of shame, how to explain his unpaid thousands of debts he lost in e-sabong.

The SUNDAY PUNCH joins the millions of families who are praying for the passage of the law completely banning online gambling.

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