Senator Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri revealed on Thursday, Aug.14, that the online gambling revenue industry grew by 5,564 percent from 2020 to 2024 while losses piled up on wage earners, students, and low-income families.

“Mr. Chair, to illustrate: from 2020 to 2024, the industry grew by 5,564 percent. Unbelievable. And yet it is real,” Zubiri said during the Senate hearing on online gambling led by the Committee on Games and Amusement.

He walked the panel through gross gaming revenues (GGRs) that rose from P8 billion in 2022 to P33.16 billion in 2023 and P135.71 billion in 2024, with P106.53 billion already logged in the first half of 2025.

He explained that these numbers translate to money lost at home by many Filipino families.

Zubiri referred to the country's “shameful status” as the gambling capital of Asia, with 79 casinos. This surpassed Cambodia with 48, Macau with 47, Vietnam with 40, and South Korea with 32.

“Number one sa sugalan. Nakakahiya at nakakadismaya. At brick-and-mortar casinos pa lang po ito. With online gambling, baka lampas pa tayo sa number one (Number one in gambling. It’s shameful and disappointing. And this is just for brick-and-mortar casinos. With online gambling, we might even surpass number one),” he added.

He invited to the hearing family members who have suffered from online gambling, including two instances in his home province of Bukidnon.

“Today, we will hear directly from some of these online gambling victims themselves. Their voices will remind us that online gambling is not just a policy issue. It is a crisis that destroys families, livelihoods and futures. We hope that their first-hand accounts will emphasize the urgency of eliminating online gambling once and for all,” he noted.

He said there was a family from Bukidnon, who lost their son to suicide after he incurred an online gambling debt that he could not pay and a police corporal who robbed a convenience store at gunpoint, reportedly for his online gambling and stole P12,000 from the register before he was arrested.

In La Trinidad, he continued, a 22-year-old was reported to have committed suicide due to online gambling debts, and in Daanbantayan, Cebu, a man was reported to have murdered three people due to an argument over online gambling winnings. 

And in Cebu City, he said an 18-year-old was arrested for killing a 45-year-old, also after arguing about online gambling winnings.

“These stories reveal the ugly truth of online gambling. It is not at all just fun and games, as the colorful advertisements would like us to believe,” he stated.

His speech then shifted on who pays for the revenues of online gambling companies, with the senator stressing that the pressure falls on ordinary households and not on high rollers.

“But that is a generous view of a dire situation, because the truth is, that massive revenue is from the pockets of hardworking Filipino people. Not foreigners. Not rich people. Just regular working-class people,” he said.

The committee also heard how the system makes gambling almost effortless, with seamless wallet links that allow users to bet repeatedly without leaving their homes.

“The biggest culprit is the accessibility and the ease of transactions. Napakaganda po talaga ng integration ng digital wallets at ng mga online gambling sites. Napakadaling tumaya, mag-withdraw, mag-top up, at tumaya muli, kasi ilang click lang ‘yan lahat online. Hindi mo na kailangan lumabas ng bahay. Napakabilis ng transactions. Napaka-convenient maglaro, mag-scatter (The integration of digital wallets and online gambling sites is really remarkable. It’s so easy to place bets, withdraw, top up, and bet again, because it only takes a few clicks online. You don’t even need to leave your house. Transactions are very fast. It’s so convenient to play scatter),” Zubiri explained.

“GCash alone has a user base of about 94 million people. That is about 81 percent of our entire population. And of that 94 million, over three million users have availed of the GLoan, GGives, and GCredit services,” he added. 

“If you have GCash, Mr. Chair, you might know that they have a whole section dedicated to leisure and enjoyment, and under this umbrella, you will find a link to what they label as ‘Games.’ … And if you lose and you run out of money on GCash, walang problema (no problem). You can apply for GCash loans para tuloy ang saya (so that you can continue betting),” he said.

To underscore the harm being caused by online gambling, Zubiri highlighted survey and rehabilitation data and linked them to the stories families are now sharing with support groups and clinics.

Citing data from Capstone-Intel Corporation which ran a survey on online betting, Zubiri said in 2013, they found that 64 percent of respondents were engaged in online gambling. The number of online gamblers in 2025 has undoubtedly gone higher.

He noted that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), every high-risk gambler affects an average of six other people, “a chain effect of lives destroyed by online gambling".