Gambling ad billboards are coming down in the Philippines, but the real fight remains online

In the Philippines, the once-glowing digital billboards of Metro Manila are going dark for gambling ads as the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has given operators until August 15 to strip gambling ads from public transport, billboards, and cityscapes.

It’s a striking visual retreat for a vice that, until recently, was not just tolerated but highly visible. Yet the crackdown signals more than just a clean-up of the skyline - it opens a deeper reckoning over the role of advertising, the limits of regulation, and the economic and social tensions driving the conversation around gambling in the country.

As digital platforms emerge as the next marketing frontier, and lawmakers debate whether to regulate or ban online gambling altogether, the industry stands at a crossroads. Stakeholders from creatives to operators to digital watchdogs are weighing in - not just on what should happen to the ads, but on what kind of society is being shaped by them.

Don't miss: Philippines cracks down on out-of-home gambling ads in sweeping policy shift

A fast-growing, now unwelcome client

In Manila’s dense urban arteries, gambling has rapidly become one of the most visible ad categories. “My own head‑count had gambling creatives occupying roughly one in three LED faces this year,” Carlos Mori Rodriguez, chief innovation officer at EON Group, told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. “For months EDSA looked like one huge casino strip. The deadline may be late, but it finally tells gambling companies our streets aren’t their personal billboard.”

He said media owners have privately acknowledged that gambling was their fastest-growing advertising category after telecommunications - reflecting the sector’s explosive rise. According to PAGCOR, the country’s gambling industry was projected to surpass US$6 billion in revenue in 2024, fuelled largely by the rapid expansion of electronic gaming.

Miko David, president of the Digital Marketing Association of the Philippines (DMAP), said online gaming has been a growing category in out-of-home (OOH) advertising over the past three years. “Initially, only a handful of players were heavily placed in OOH,” he said. “Over time, a greater number have utilised the space as a major part of their channel strategy.”

While OOH media remains largely dominated by sectors such as telcos, financial services, quick-service restaurants, over-the-counter healthcare, and alcoholic beverages, David noted that online gaming regularly surged into the top five advertisers, depending on the quarter.

That advertising boom is now in freefall. David, who is also a managing partner at David & Golyat, said media owners are already taking action. “I am aware that the various media owners have prepared for the removal... Many are actively looking at other sectors to fill in the gaps.” These other sectors include telco and food brands, Rodriguez added.

Even with the loss of revenue, there’s a sense of inevitability - and even relief. For long-time creative and DadbudPH founder Joey Ong, the ads have become an ethical sore point: “Every day, during my regular drives, I see OOH billboards with big-name celebrities casually inviting people to register and bet. Some ads say you can start with just 5 pesos (US$0.09) - just enough to hook someone in.”

Ong, who has spent 25 years in the creative advertising industry, speaks bluntly. “We all know gambling is harmful. We know people will get hooked. But we convince ourselves it’s okay because there’s a tiny ‘Play Responsibly’ disclaimer - like that’s enough to stop a desperate man from using his last earned peso trying to win back yesterday’s loss.”

While many Southeast Asian countries enforce strict gambling rules - Indonesia, for instance, prohibits all forms under both criminal and religious law, and Singapore heavily restricts access through tight licensing and enforcement - the Philippines stands out as a regional outlier. Both land-based and online gambling activities are allowed and regulated through the state-run agency, PAGCOR.

From streets to feeds: The digital risk

The question now is whether the regulation will evolve fast enough to keep up with gambling’s next frontier: digital. Platforms such as e-wallets and ride-hailing apps, where gambling ads are also showing up, have proven far harder to monitor.

Social media, as well, has complicated the matter. The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Centre (CICC), along with advocacy group Digital Pinoys, recently flagged over 20 influencers for promoting unlicensed online gambling platforms. Meta responded by removing the flagged pages - some of which belonged to those with millions of followers.

“Once the big billboards go dark, regulators will start looking at the ads that pop up on our phones,” Rodriguez said. He believes digital enforcement is “doable,” pointing to e-wallets’ existing infrastructure.

“They already ask us for valid ID, so they know our age and where we live. They can use that same information to block gambling ads from minors or from people in places where betting is restricted,” he added.

Still, gaps remain. According to David, “Many social platforms already ban online gaming content from a paid media standpoint, but organic seeding content still slips through - and we’ve seen that this is done through scale.”

That scale is what worries Ong: “Unless there’s a total ban on both gambling and its advertisements, this vice will just find new ways to infiltrate - like a cancer attacking another organ.”

Ong argued that the core issue isn’t just visibility - it’s access. “When online gambling started, access became dangerously easy,” he said. In a country where nearly 90% of the population has mobile internet and over 95 million people use e-wallets, he warned that the rise of online betting was less a surprise and more an inevitability - “a social epidemic, like a silent pandemic.”

Lawmakers are already weighing proposals to ban online gambling outright, but licensed operators are pushing back, urging for clearer distinctions between legitimate and illegal entities.

DigiPlus Interactive Corp., the operator of brands such as BingoPlus and ArenaPlus, has gone on record to defend its compliance and transparency, arguing that compliant businesses are being unfairly grouped with bad actors. Chair Eusebio Tanco called for fairness, adding that the company is open to stricter regulation if needed, but warned against judging the entire industry without a full understanding of the facts.

An industry reckons with its influence

There’s cautious optimism in industry circles that this new wave of regulation may not be purely reactive. The recent memorandum of understanding between PAGCOR and the Advertising Standards Council (ASC) hints at a more collaborative approach. “It will be less of a broader crackdown and more skewed towards self-regulation,” said David.

But for critics, that’s not enough. “PAGCOR is in the gambling business, and that’s the problem,” said Ong. “It’s hard to expect them to regulate something that profits them. It’s like asking someone to cut off their own leg.” The conflict of interest is laid bare by PAGCOR’s rising revenues, with a 25% jump in contributions to the national treasury in May 2024 alone, totalling US$55.9 million.

Despite differences in tone, everyone interviewed agrees on one thing: advertising is powerful, and must wield that power responsibly. Ong pointed to OOH advertising as especially potent in the Philippines, where visibility often equates to legitimacy. “If you’re on a billboard - whether for gambling, politics, or any other product - people assume you’re legit,” he said. Its scale, speed of deployment, and ease of sharing online amplify its impact even further.

Raymund Sison, founder and creative chief at Lennon Group, put it plainly: “We need to recognise the enormous power of advertising to change perception and shape behaviour. When the message is everywhere, it has the power to become the norm.”

Advertising comes with great responsibility. It has always been a mirror of society, but sometimes, it needs to be a compass.

“This is an opportunity to create with responsibility, innovate with humanity, and collaborate with regulators,” he added. “In the end, responsibility to our community is the real jackpot.”

There might be growing momentum for a complete overhaul of how gambling ads are treated, but for now, the streets may be quieting. But phones still buzz with the sound of rolling dice. And the industry - regulators, agencies, media owners - must decide whether it’s willing to do more than just play catch-up.

David was optimistic, saying that online operators have more limited avenues to advertise to the general public and that many are reevaluating their channel strategies. “The consultation between PAGCOR and ASC had been a year in the making, and this came from a forward-thinking standpoint of adapting to the trends of today.”

“In a similar fashion, I believe the Philippine government will continue to monitor the developments within the sector and the feedback of the general public - up until the industry has reached an acceptable level where enough safeguards are in place.”

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to PAGCOR for more information.

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