The government should not introduce a POGO ban. Period. It will kill any inducement to good behavior in that sector. It will also completely wipe out the incentive for legally compliant licensees to tip off illegal operations of non-compliant competitors.

July 4th, 2024

In the tobacco sector, a lot of the tips on smuggling and illicit trade come from the tax-compliant companies. The same is true for POGOs. It’s a bad idea to even contemplate a total ban.

Even if you ban POGOs completely, you will continue to face the kind of problems that cause any illegal foreign operations of any kind here: porous immigration, poorly-equipped intelligence and infiltration capabilities, law enforcement that does not speak Chinese. The problem was never mainly the PAGCOR regime or the tax enforcement.

Keep the PAGCOR rules. Keep the POGO Tax Law, which at least sets what the government can do to apprehend offenders. Funnel some of the revenues towards law enforcement capabilities. That’s what we should do.