Next time you scan a QR code past midnight, the central bank wants to make sure your money isn’t being routed to an underground online casino.
Surveillance by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recently uncovered a widespread scheme on local digital payment platforms: thousands of illegal gambling operations were registering as everyday neighborhood businesses, including bakeries, beauty parlors, and mom-and-pop sari-sari stores, to process illicit bets through standard e-wallet accounts.
In response, regulators are forcing digital payment giants to completely overhaul how they verify the businesses operating on their networks.
How Underground Gambling Hijacked Local QR Codes
The scheme relied on high-volume micro-transactions. Central bank monitors flagged unusual activity when thousands of payments as small as ₱50 were flowing into unremarkable merchant accounts during the early hours of the morning. (Read More: BSP Draft Rules Seek to Block QR Ph Workaround Used by Offshore Platforms)
Investigators quickly realized these late-night transactions were not for midnight pastries or haircuts, but wagers on unregistered online casinos. Over 8,000 merchant accounts tied to these illegal setups have since been shut down.
This tactic mirrors gray-market payment workarounds previously documented across the local fintech space. Earlier investigations by BitPinas revealed that platforms operating outside local regulations, such as prediction market platform Polymarket, frequently relied on third-party payment aggregators to process PHP deposits via QR Ph, often generating QR codes linked to seemingly random merchant names to bypass detection. (Read More: Polymarket Adds QR Ph as Payment Options via Third-Party Provider)
The End of Unchecked Merchant Aggregators
To rapidly expand financial inclusion across the country’s islands, e-wallet platforms frequently rely on third-party intermediaries known as merchant aggregators. These aggregators sign up small local businesses to the payment network, earning incentives for every merchant brought on board.
However, aggressive expansion outpaced due diligence, allowing bad actors to exploit loose onboarding protocols. Under draft rules released by the BSP, payment platforms will now be held directly responsible for the merchants on their networks.
E-wallet operators must now collect comprehensive documentation for every linked merchant, including:
- Verified business owner identities
- Valid government business permits and licenses
- Registration entries in centralized databases of legitimate businesses
If an e-wallet platform repeatedly fails to stop illegal activities on its network, the BSP has made the stakes clear: operators risk losing their payment licenses entirely.
What This Means for E-Wallet Users
For everyday users, the push for stricter merchant vetting is designed to prevent financial fraud, scams, and money laundering. While it may slightly slow down how quickly new small vendors can accept digital payments, regulators insist safety must take priority.
The timing is critical. Digital payments accounted for nearly two-thirds of all retail transactions in the Philippines in 2025, up from 57% in 2024 and just 10% in 2018. Major players are also facing heightened public scrutiny: Mynt, the parent company of GCash, is preparing for a record initial public offering, while rival Maya is considering a public listing of its own.
In response to the proposed guidelines, Maya and the EMoney Association of the Philippines expressed support for stricter oversight, emphasizing that safeguarding the digital payments ecosystem is vital for sustainable growth.
This article is published on BitPinas: Illegal Casinos Tried Passing Themselves Off as Bakeries and Salons, Prompting Tighter BSP E-Wallet, QR Ph Rules
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