The House Committee on Ways and Means, Philippines has agreed in principle to legalize online wagering on cockfighting.
Cockfighting, locally known as sabong, may now move to digital platform where betting may be put through online gambling operators.
The govt. has taken this step to know the amount of tax it is owed and to ensure that operators pay the requisite tax to the government.
The house Committees’ chairman Joey Salceda said: “The operations of online betting on sabong are authorized by local ordinances. Because of the digital shift, there are now electronic betting operations on such games. But the electronic aspect of it is a gray area, even though the airwaves is national property”, reported Calvin Ayre.
Salceda further added, “While the government seeks new revenue streams to fund its COVID-19 priorities, this bill responds to this government need by imposing new national government taxes on activities that already exist and will undoubtedly continue to exist as digital technologies grow more sophisticated, but are not being imposed such taxes. The principle is simple. The industry used to be in a gray area. Now, we can shed light on it. The industry used to be untaxed. Now, we will tax it”, reported Calvin Ayre.