Philippines Blocks 8,000+ Merchant Accounts Tied to Illegal Gambling

The Philippine central bank (BSP) blocked accounts belonging to more than 8,000 merchant points registered as beauty salons, bakeries, and small shops, which were actually processing payments for illegal iGaming operators in the country, according to a report by Bloomberg.

According to BSP's deputy governor, the central bank's attention was drawn to accounts belonging to ordinary merchants that were processing thousands of small payments, starting from as low as $0.8, occurring between midnight and early morning hours. Gambling regulator PAGCOR confirmed that some of these businesses are themselves illegal iGaming operators, and acknowledged a lack of oversight over this particular segment.

The case highlights how illegal gambling operators in the Philippines have used disguised merchant accounts to process payments while evading detection within the country's digital payment infrastructure, prompting the central bank's broader review of digital payment channels potentially exploited for unlicensed gambling activity.