Inside the Philippines' online gambling epidemic: ‘it's worse than Pogos'
What began as casual wagers – just a few hundred pesos here, a thousand there – quickly escalated. One day, Clark placed a 7,000-peso (US$120) bet that, in a dizzying stroke of fortune, ballooned into 1.7 million pesos (US$30,000).
With that huge win, he thought his luck had changed. Instead, it marked the beginning of a spiralling addiction that highlights the urgent, unaddressed crisis of online gambling gripping
the Philippines
Clark, who is employed in the business process outsourcing sector and works remotely, found himself betting between tasks. 'My productivity really suffered. I only took breaks just to eat or sleep,' he told This Week in Asia.
Clark's relationship with gambling began early, with bets on off-track horse racing as a teenager. Physical casinos came next, but the thrill soon gave way to paranoia: he feared being watched and marked as a high-roller.
'Although I wanted to go back, I was getting paranoid that they were monitoring me through the cameras and knew that I was a big spender. That's why I transitioned to gambling online,' he said.
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