The first time that Ana, a Filipino housewife, visited a gambling platform on her mobile phone, she was only looking to unwind for a little while. Soon, she was spending hours on the games, placing bets through her GCash payment app, and losing more money than she won.

Ana, who asked to be identified by her nickname as she was embarrassed to be identified, told Rest of World she recently sought help from a gamblers’ support group.

“With GCash … it was so easy, you could access it anytime, anywhere,” the 46-year-old mother of three said. “After I won the first time, I thought the wins would continue.”

Online gambling in the Philippines surged during the pandemic, helped by the growing adoption of mobile payment apps such as GCash and Maya. With these apps, users could make instant deposits and withdrawals on popular betting websites that they previously could not access without credit cards. The mushrooming of online gambling platforms and lax regulations have encouraged a surge in gambling in the country.

GCash, in particular, with more than 90 million active users — or more than three-fourths of the population — has helped drive an increase in the number of Filipinos getting addicted to gambling, according to gambling support groups. The app features a games section, which connects users to online gambling platforms such as Bingo Plus and Casino Plus, and sports betting sites like Arena Plus. GCash also has a microloan feature, GCredit, which lends users up to 50,000 pesos ($880).

This makes borrowing money for gambling very easy, Reagan Prafesora, director of a gamblers’ support group in Manila, told Rest of World.

“Accessibility is the number one cause,” he said. With GCash, “people can easily join any gambling app. Even small-time gamblers can cash in a small amount of money, say 100 pesos, and play right away.”

Before the pandemic, about 20% of callers to Prafesora’s gambling support hotline were women. Of the more than 2,000 callers so far this year, nearly two-thirds were women, he said. “Most people entering my support group are housewives.” 

GCash did not respond to requests for comment. 

GCash, owned by Globe Fintech Innovations, is a joint venture of Philippine companies Ayala Corporation and Globe Telecom with China’s Ant Group, which operates Alipay. In China, where Alipay is ubiquitous, authorities have found that its mobile payment app is widely used for illegal online gambling.

There are nearly 200 million active online gamblers worldwide, placing wagers on everything from sports to casino games to politics via their mobile phones and computers, according to the Gambling Industry News site. There is no official data for the Philippines, but the country has traditionally been quite tolerant of gambling, with widespread betting on local sports such as cockfighting. About three-fourths of Filipinos surveyed in 2022 by TGM Research said they had placed some sort of online bet in the previous 12 months, including on sports, card games and slots.

Gross gambling revenues last year from registered entities rose to more than 285 billion pesos ($5 billion), compared to 214 billion pesos the previous year, according to the regulation agency Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor). The growing number of Filipino women who say they are addicted to gambling is in contrast to the global norm. Worldwide, only 1% of women with gambling problems seek support.

Gambling is “part of the Filipino culture,” Teresita Castillo, a gambling counselor, told Rest of World. Online gambling poses the risk of addiction, but is a “hidden addiction,” as it can be done in the privacy of the home and is hard to detect, she said. Women from low-income families may be particularly reluctant to seek help, she added.

Housewives such as Ana are drawn to online gambling primarily because they are bored or stressed, and can do it at home between chores, Wilman, leader of a Baguio-based gambling support group, told Rest of World. Many are also lured by popular social media influencers, like Pera University and MissJen Vlogs, who promote gambling sites and tips. “There are games on the GCash app: I earned 3,500 pesos instantly!!” Pera University, who has more than 1.2 million subscribers, says in one YouTube video.

Wilman, who did not give his last name because he did not wish to identify his gambling support group, has a rule for those who come to the group. “We tell them to remove anything that they can use to easily access gambling sites,” he said. “We tell them: First, delete GCash.”

Instead, Wilman asks them to entrust a family member with their finances — like he did with his wife —  so that they do not have to use the GCash app.

There is no way for GCash users to delete the games feature in the app. On the Reddit forum r/problemgambling, a Filipino posed the question: “How to block gambling on GCash?” The user said they had become addicted to gambling because of the app. One solution posted on the thread was to deactivate the GCash account, or move it to an old mobile phone that they do not use.

GCash’s in-app game partners come with some checks and balances. They are all registered with Pagcor, and are required to have responsible gambling measures such as deposit and loss limits, and self-exclusion options for vulnerable players. GCash also informs users of potential risks. 

But users can also make payments via GCash to gambling sites that are not licensed by Pagcor. Unregistered gaming sites pose greater risks to users, as they do not follow the organization’s code of practice and measures that aim to minimize potential harm, Prafesora said.

“Since they’re connected with GCash, people presume that these are legit sites,” he said.

Some officials are sounding the alarm. In July, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the shutdown of all offshore gambling operators. Senator Robinhood Padilla has called for punishing promoters of gambling-related content online with jail time and a fine. Senator Lito Lapid separately called for regulating “payment hubs like GCash, Maya, mobile banking apps, and the like to ensure that they are not being misused.”

Given how essential GCash is to Filipinos, it is impractical to do away with it entirely, Castillo said. “They can add pop-up messages on responsible gambling and spending limits, but people will always find a way around it,” she said. “At the end of the day, it is a business — a good business.”