Published: 5:00pm, 9 Jul 2025Updated: 5:05pm, 9 Jul 2025
At the rehabilitation centres run by Bridges of Hope, a recovery network spread across the Philippines, founder Jon Ty is used to seeing the different faces of addiction. For years, clients came seeking help for their abuse of drugs, alcohol or painkillers. Now, most come for something else.
Advertisement
Today, seven in 10 clients treated across the network of centres are battling online gambling addiction – a trend that highlights a deepening crisis in the country, fuelled by a boom in mobile betting apps during the pandemic.
“There’s so much enrolment into our treatment centres when it comes to gambling”, with online betting addiction becoming “an alarming national problem”, Ty told This Week in Asia.
While gamblers who seek treatment from Bridges of Hope come from various backgrounds, Ty is alarmed by the rising number of minors whose families come to the centres for help.
“We have seen many people, mostly the young ones in this generation, since last year, because of mobile apps that are promoting it,” Ty said.
Advertisement
Several lawmakers have already filed bills to regulate the country’s online gambling industry just days into the new Congress, amid increasing public pressure to address the rising cases of gambling addiction, especially among minors.