A group advocating ethical reforms in the gambling industry has launched its social media platform on July 1, for a wider campaign on moderation and responsible gaming, with a call for accountability among stakeholders and bettors alike.
The group, however, emphasized that “such reforms should be evidence-based and must not come at the cost of weakening the industry that provides employment and a sizable bulk of government revenues that in turn help ease people’s lives, especially the less privileged.”
Registered as a non-stock, non-profit organization, GAMERS Coalition also pledges a campaign that will unite operators, regulators, workers, gamers and their families, and the communities to push for reforms, protect players, and promote ethical gaming.
“We are pro-responsibility, pro-regulation, and pro-community organization, and we seek to reclaim gaming as safe, empowering, and socially beneficial,” the Coalition stressed in a statement.
The Coalition said it will focus its campaign on: Gaming policy reforms, Addiction, Information and Education, and Corporate Social Responsibility programs.
“The Coalition is a welcome development. If managed well, it can become a vehicle for a responsible pro-regulation, pro-community platform that can reclaim gaming as safe, empowering, and socially beneficial, ” says Jay Carizo, a policy and governance specialist doing studies on policies in the gaming industry.
Gaming is a growing economic and entertainment sector in the Philippines, and without reform, it can be used in illegal activities such as fraud and rigging, money laundering, and social problems such as financial distress, addiction, and loss of public trust.
Given these undesirable prospects, Gamers Coalition seeks to address weak safeguards for responsible gaming, lack of transparency and player protections, low community returns from gaming, exploitative and opportunist stakeholders, and a wide campaign against poor public perception of the gaming industry.
Gaming in the Philippines has become a billion-peso industry and thus, without a united and wider concern from the stakeholders and the people, it is prone to abuse. In 2024 alone, its gross gaming revenue hit P410.5 billion representing 1.5 percent of the total Philippine Gross Domestic Product.
The group could be reached thru its FB Account Gamers Coalition & X (formerly Twitter) @gcoalition.