Philippine restrictions on in-app gambling access continued to weigh on GCash parent Mynt’s payment revenue in the first half of 2026, according to AP Securities.
Financial tables in the brokerage’s October 7th research note put Mynt’s payment solutions revenue at PHP24.9 billion ($396.6 million), down 3.7 percent year-on-year.
APS linked the pressure to measures imposed by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), saying the first-half results reflected ‘the full impact of the BSP-mandated delinking of e-wallets from online gaming platforms beginning August 2025’.
The central bank’s August 2025 directive required supervised institutions to remove links providing access to gambling sites from their payment apps and websites within 48 hours. The order followed concerns about the impact of rising online gambling activity on consumers’ financial health.
GCash removed access to licensed gaming top-up and withdrawal services from its app on August 16th, 2025. Its customer advisory directs users to gaming operators’ own websites and channels to access their accounts and withdraw funds.
Days after the measure took effect, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) Chairman Alejandro Tengco told lawmakers that online gaming transactions had fallen by about 50 percent. Speaking on August 20th, 2025, he said the decline was observed between August 17th and 19th following the delinking order.
Gaming operator DigiPlus, which runs BingoPlus and ArenaPlus, reported revenue of PHP32.85 billion ($523.3 million) for the first half of 2026, down 31.2 percent year-on-year. The company has previously identified the delinking of licensed gaming platforms from e-wallet access points as a drag on user activity and transaction flows.
