It starts with a simple scroll. Before you even realize it, ads pop out almost immediately, one after another. Suddenly, the timeline is filled with adverts of famous celebrities, embellished with sparkling elements and gold font—enticing netizens to spin the wheel and earn double.

It’s merely a game, they say, and to some extent, a recreational activity. However, behind the flashing promos and borrowed glamour lies something far more calculated. These companies know exactly who to target, preying on those who are tired of being part of a system that’s not in their favor.

The elites have capitalized on the financial and digital vulnerabilities of ordinary people by dressing up risk as entertainment. While people chase coins in a game rigged against them, it is those who own the platforms and push the endorsements who reap the profits.

Against the Odds

One’s odds of winning were never just beginner’s luck; they were deliberately engineered into a business model designed to keep people coming back for more.

In a system where the elites control the rules of the game, every aspect of gambling is made in their favor. Traditional gambling lured players in with flashing lights, 24/7 access, and a captivating playing environment. Such conditions led to the emergence of disorders like pathological gambling, where a person is compelled to gamble despite its physical, mental, and financial toll. 

However, online gambling took it further by stripping away the casino walls and introducing more nuanced issues that compounded the dangers of traditional gambling. By placing the temptation conveniently within one’s reach, gambling became easier, faster, and harder to escape.

Gambling platforms use marketing tactics that lure users in. Several 2023 studies by researchers at the University of Porto and Deakin University show that visuals of luxury and wealth entice players by offering gambling as a path to achieve a better lifestyle—every spin is a chance at transformation. The use of bright colors and playful effects in their interface further gamifies the experience, making risks feel like a game.

The increased availability of online gambling significantly heightened the risk and severity of gambling disorders, especially among young individuals, according to a 2015 study by Sally Gainsbury of Southern Cross University. The accessibility of online gambling, coupled with the different marketing strategies employed by companies, exposes the government’s inadequacy in regulating gambling.

Illicit Plays

In the absence of substantial government regulation, these gambling platforms become virtually free in employing exploitative marketing strategies without getting reprimanded.

These marketing strategies can be determined using Robert Entman’s Framing Theory, a framework that conceptualizes media content into different frames. An example of an identifiable frame is incorporating visual elements and color schemes associated with luxury, like raining money bills and piles of gold coins. Another frame uses intentional semantics like lucky streak or easy win to gamify the gambling experience.

Beyond visuals and texts, companies deliberately use playful, childlike language which paints gambling not as a high-stake financial risk, but as a harmless game. Another frame uses constant promos, bonuses, and cashback offers to trigger reward anticipation among players and entices them to come back for more.

These insidious tactics turn the rather predatory industry of gambling into a virtual playground, which gets blasted through social media platforms in the form of paid ads, and even text messages. To further attract users, these companies introduce another charismatic element: influencers.

Emerging studies on Entman’s theory suggest that celebrities become new players in framing, as they leverage personal branding to shape narratives, especially on issues like gambling. These influencers capitalize on their followers’ trust and present themselves as familiar faces to egregiously gamify gambling 

Under a capitalist system, every cultural trend becomes an opportunity for profit for the elites. By commodifying influencers’ reach, gambling companies divert attention from their exploitative practices to glamorize gambling through celebrity endorsements.

Such a practice takes shape as the latest marketing frame, where gambling becomes an ideological control sold by influencers as an illusory win. Meanwhile, ordinary Filipinos get lured by gambling’s false promises and receive the short end of the stick.

While the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) is responsible for regulating gambling companies, not much regulation exists on how gambling companies can promote online gambling to Filipino users.

PAGCOR regulates gambling and declares unlicensed sites illegal, but its role as both operator and regulator raises concerns over impartial and consistent enforcement, alongside the lack of a comprehensive legislation specific to online gambling. Moreover, many unlicensed or “grey market” websites operate freely, often hosted overseas, and are accessible to Filipinos through VPNs or mirrors.

Alarmingly, some of these illicit sites have infiltrated the digital infrastructure of government and educational institutions like UP, hijacking school servers and compromising student data. Operating in the shadows, they make it dangerously easy—even for minors—to place bets with little to no oversight.

Given how the government has stalled POGO operations, it remains uncertain how long it will take for them to meaningfully address the broader problem of online gambling. 

Odds in the People’s Favor

PAGCOR’s inadequate efforts and the country’s weak legal frameworks have enabled online gambling companies to operate exploitatively.

Institutions must now hold more grit in regulating online gambling by enforcing stricter gambling advertising rules. At the same time, digital wallets like GCash and Maya should be held accountable for enabling gambling’s easy and exclusive access through their platforms.

With the emergence of online gambling, a shift in regulatory actions need to be done to address the risks of virtual casinos. It is high time for the government to provide a more comprehensive legal framework that includes provisions on advertising restrictions, player protections, taxation, and transparency in operator licensing.

Alongside this, the framework should encapsulate more robust user protection measures, which prohibit influencers from promoting gambling platforms, especially to underage audiences, and limit the exposure of gambling content to users. Equally important is the role of influencers in responsible content creation with regard to ethical considerations toward vulnerable audiences such as the youth.

Everyone has the right to dream of financial freedom, but when that dream is exploited for profit, such liberation is lost under the false promises of gambling. There is no greater loss than that of wasting away one’s future in a game where only the elite were programmed to win to begin with. ●

First published in the June 19, 2025 print edition of the Collegian.