{"id":156581,"date":"2020-11-25T07:10:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T15:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=156581"},"modified":"2020-11-25T09:04:48","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T17:04:48","slug":"philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippines Moves to Tax and Regulate \u2018E-Sabong,\u2019 Online Cockfighting Betting"},"content":{"rendered":"

A legislative committee in the Philippines on Tuesday approved a bill to regulate and tax online betting on cockfighting.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"cockfighting\"
Online cockfighting, or sabong, has existed for about a decade, but has exploded in popularity during the pandemic. (Image: Pilipino Mirror)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While banned in the US<\/a> and many jurisdictions around the world, the blood sport is popular in the Philippines, where it is known as \u201csabong.\u201d There, both illegal and legal cockfights occur.<\/p>\n

Sabong bouts involve spectators placing wagers while the birds fight to the death with hooked razors, known in English as \u201cgaffs\u201d or \u201cslashers,\u201d attached to their talons. The birds are often injected with steroids to increase their fighting potential.<\/p>\n

But Philippine lawmakers want to drag sabong clucking and slashing into the digital age. Since the streaming of bouts over the web for betting purposes (e-sabong) already widely exists, a new measure seeks to tax it and create transparency around it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile 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,\u201d said Joey Salceda, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and a sponsor of the bill.<\/p>\n

Billion-Dollar Industry<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Philippine cockfighting industry is believed to be worth just over US$1 billion per year, according to the country\u2019s Games and Amusement Board. Meanwhile, e-sabong is around a decade old, but has exploded in popularity because of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

Cockfighting as a live spectator sport is currently banned as part of government measures to combat the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n

\n

This means means that the World Slasher Cup 2020 is also canceled. The event, known as the \u201cOlympics of Cockfighting,\u201d is normally held each year at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Cockfighting: \u2018Painless\u2019 Revenue Stream<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Salceda acknowledged that e-sabong betting has existed in a gray area of the law, which his bill seeks to rectify. It seeks to impose a 5 percent tax on the gross revenues of off-site betting activities on locally licensed matches.<\/p>\n

The measure would also allow the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to oversee and inspect totalizators and other gambling devices used to verify tax assessment. Meanwhile, local government units will maintain full authority to license and tax the bouts separately.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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. And, as a non-essential economic activity, this proposal will be one of the few rare opportunities to create a painless revenue stream for our economic recovery,\u201d Salceda said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A legislative committee in the Philippines on Tuesday approved a bill to regulate and tax online betting on cockfighting. While banned in the US and many jurisdictions around the world, the blood sport is popular in the Philippines, where it is known as \u201csabong.\u201d There, both illegal and legal cockfights occur. Sabong bouts involve spectators […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":156582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,13592],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPhilippines Moves to Tax \u2018E-Sabong,\u2019 Online Cockfighting Betting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Philippine online cockfighting betting, known as e-sabong, is a billion-dollar industry that is enjoying a surge due to the coronavirus.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philippines Moves to Tax \u2018E-Sabong,\u2019 Online Cockfighting Betting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Philippine online cockfighting betting, known as e-sabong, is a billion-dollar industry that is enjoying a surge due to the coronavirus.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-25T15:10:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-25T17:04:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/sabong2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"864\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting\/\",\"name\":\"Philippines Moves to Tax \u2018E-Sabong,\u2019 Online Cockfighting Betting\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/sabong2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-25T15:10:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-25T17:04:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Philippine online cockfighting betting, known as e-sabong, is a billion-dollar industry that is enjoying a surge due to the coronavirus.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-moves-to-tax-e-sabong-online-cockfighting-betting\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/sabong2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/sabong2.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":864,\"caption\":\"Online cockfighting, or sabong, has existed for about a decade but has exploded in popularity during the pandemic. 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