The central bank of the Philippines is finalizing revolutionary rules that will, among others, help to deal with the increasing online gambling problem. New rules from Bangko Sentral Pilipinas (BSP) will impact banks, e-wallets and other financial institutions while they are under their supervision.
New regulations in question don’t just come from thin air: the BSP has listened to the people through public consultations, especially after the majority raised flags on how the digital gambling platforms have made it easier to waste money.
The central bank is not playing when it comes to new rules. Financial institutions are going to have to work harder to do it properly with real identity issues checks – we are talking about facial recognition and biometrics before anyone is allowed to give online betting sites money. All easy and fast transactions will be stopped.
Still, that’s only a part of a new framework with safety measures that may sound clever. For example, daily spending limits can prevent a user from going crazy while time restrictions may effectively set only so much gambling time for each day. Additionally, users will also be facilitated to protect themselves with, for example, self-exclusion programs and personal budgeting that they can set up.
Why is this so important? The new rules are designed basically to stop people from losing, and prevent that kind of impulsive behavior which is usually the main reason why online gambling is so dangerous. Lito Villanueva who is the CEO of the FinTech Alliance in the Philippines believes that the BSP is really smart in making this decision. He is especially concerned about the younger generation finding themselves in the whirl of digital financial risks as they are getting used to online payments.
