Networks of Dis(trust) and Gaming Development in the Philippines: PAGCOR and the Entertainment City
This article analyzes the unique trajectory of the Philippine gaming industry, with a particular focus on the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). It aims to provide empirical insight on how state and non-state actors
take part in the growing gaming industry in the Philippines in a neoliberal context. This article first addresses the dominant patron-client paradigms, and finds them insufficient to provide an explanation to both the gaming development in the country and the regulatory mechanisms behind this
industry. By providing a description of how PAGCOR and the PCSO circumvent dysfunctional bureaucracy and assuage criticism against systemic corruption, this article suggests that a closer look at the complex networks between stakeholders in both the public and private sectors will provide
an alternative way of understanding Philippine politics. The strategic decision by the weak Philippine state to invest heavily in the gaming industry presents a clear example of how these complex networks operate. The gaming regulatory policy pragmatically employs current Philippine laws to
ensure maximum profit for the state. This article concludes that a critical examination of the gaming industry is necessary, spanning both the legal and illegal types and the social relations of confidence and suspicion between public and private stakeholders.
Keywords: CASINOS; COMPLEX NETWORKS; CORRUPTION; GAMING INDUSTRY; GOVERNANCE; PAGCOR; PCSO; THE PHILIPPINES
Document Type: Research Article
Publication date: 01 December 2017
- Pacific Affairs is a peer-reviewed, independent, and interdisciplinary scholarly journal focusing on important current political, economic and social issues throughout Asia and the Pacific. Each issue contains approximately five new articles and 40-50 book reviews. Published continuously as a quarterly since 1928 under the same name, it is the oldest English-language journal with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. It enjoys an international reputation based on the high quality of articles, and its extensive book reviews section.
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