Morality cannot be legislated but behavior can be regulated. Those are the words of Martin Luther King that could be considered relevant to the predominant public sentiment about the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO), which are Philippine-based online gambling companies that offer services to customers outside of the country. POGO are registered and licensed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation in order to operate as a legal entity. In addition to the social cost that has a tendency to widen socioeconomic inequality among the population, POGO has a propensity to increase criminal activities among its participants. Granted that these adverse consequences are supported by data from socioeconomic-related research studies, the fact remains that POGO contributes a notable amount to the public and private sectors in the form of regulatory revenue, personnel wages, rental income, income taxes and utility bills among others. Based on the research conducted by the Leechiu Property Consultants, the Philippine economy could lose an estimated P190 billion per year if the remaining POGO are shut down. A ban and exodus of the remaining POGO would translate to a foregone P9.5 billion of annual utility bills, P54.3 billion of annual income taxes, P5.3 billion of annual regulatory taxes, P5.8 billion of annual government taxes, P11.4 billion of annual food consumption, P18.9 billion of annual office rental income, P52.5 billion of annual technological upgrades, P28.6 billion of annual residential rental income, 347,000 of displaced direct and indirect workers and 1.1 million square meters of commercial office rental space. How unfortunate that most traditional politicians have been grandstanding about the current state of the POGO while the world has entered a prolonged economic unrest brought about by the tightening monetary policy to reduce the overheated economic growth and escalating inflation rate. Rather than concentrate on the social cost of POGO, most traditional politicians should focus on ensuring that the relevant government agencies have enough human and financial resources to serve and protect the interest of the public. We have to underscore the fact that narrowing socioeconomic inequality is a function of general employment while the decreasing criminal activities is a function of law enforcement. Outlawing the business operations of the remaining POGO would translate to a foregone multibillion worth of annual economic gains as a result of a hysterical political grandstanding by most traditional politicians. Why do some people prefer to burn the house down to get rid of a rat rather than get rid of a rat without burning anything?
