CEZA and First Cagayan: what remains of the Cagayan gaming licence in 2026

Status check, September 2026

CEZA still exists as an economic-zone authority with gaming powers written into its charter, but offshore online gaming has been prohibited nationwide since the end of 2024 and the prohibition became statute in October 2025. A new operator should not plan a launch around a Cagayan interactive gaming licence.

CEZA itself argued that its licensees were different from PAGCOR offshore operators. The Anti-POGO Act of 2025 answered the broader question by revoking offshore gaming licences issued by special economic zone authorities as well as by PAGCOR. Neither CEZA nor its master licensors publish a current list of active interactive gaming licensees or a fee schedule, so any offer of a "new CEZA licence" deserves hard questions about its legal basis.

How the Cagayan model worked

CEZA was created by Republic Act 7922, the Cagayan Special Economic Zone Act of 1995, which lets the authority license gaming inside the zone without prior approval from PAGCOR. Online gaming was run through master licensors rather than by CEZA directly.

The Cagayan licensing chain as it stood before the ban

According to BusinessMirror (January 2025), master licensors committed to USD 100 million of investment over ten years. The same report put CEZA at about 30 interactive gaming licensees and support providers at the time of the ban, against a peak of around 300 before operators migrated to PAGCOR offshore licences in the late 2010s.

The three events that changed the picture

Cagayan was not closed by a single decision. It was squeezed by an executive order, a public dispute over its scope, and then a statute that settled the question for offshore play.

1. 5 November 2024 - Executive Order 74. Banned POGOs and internet gaming licensees, and all offshore gaming operations, with a wind-down by 31 December 2024. PAGCOR chief Alejandro Tengco said publicly that CEZA's charter was "the only area" where he saw a complication.
2. November 2024 to January 2025 - CEZA seeks an exemption. CEZA Administrator Katrina Ponce Enrile told a House hearing that CEZA licensees were foreign companies operating outside the Philippines, prohibited from soliciting bets locally. The Palace responded that CEZA should ensure the ban was followed.
3. 23 October 2025 - Republic Act 12312, the Anti-POGO Act of 2025. Prohibits offshore gaming operations and the acceptance of bets for them, and revokes offshore gaming licences issued by PAGCOR, special economic zone authorities, TIEZA, freeport authorities and other agencies, according to the Presidential Communications Office.

Fees: why there is no reliable number

CEZA has never published a consolidated online fee schedule, and the figures that circulate come from pre-ban consultant guides. We do not repeat them as current prices because the product they priced no longer has a clear legal basis.

Historically the cost stack combined a master-licensor application fee, an annual licence fee, a share of gross gaming revenue or a gaming levy, and zone registration costs, with substance requirements such as an office in the zone. The split varied by master licensor and was negotiated case by case. If a provider quotes you a Cagayan price today, ask which statute authorises the licence after RA 12312 and whether CEZA itself confirms it in writing.

Cagayan against the alternatives

The table compares the Cagayan route with the two licences Asia-focused operators most often weigh in 2026. It is a market overview, not a ranking.

Checked 24 September 2026

For a Philippines-only business, see our PAGCOR guide. For an Asia-wide audience outside the Philippines, operators now look at other jurisdictions covered in the licence hub.

What it means for the games you plan to offer

Game content never depended on the Cagayan licence alone: studios decide market by market where their games may be shown, and that is truer after the ban than before. Whatever licence you end up with, the lobby must respect studio restrictions per country.

This is where the integration matters more than the paperwork. SoftAggregator's game aggregator API returns metadata for every game (category, studio, currencies, market) so you can build a lobby per jurisdiction, and a country parameter applies each studio's restrictions at launch. Demo play is a separate getGameDemo call, which keeps free play apart from real-money sessions. Slots from Pragmatic Play or PG Soft and crash games such as Spribe's Aviator sit in the same catalogue, and a sports betting API runs on the same seamless wallet.

Balances can be held per player in several currencies or on a site locked to one currency. Catalogue and currencies change continuously; the live list is in the API. Where a regulator requires certified games, ask each studio for the lab report (GLI, BMM or iTech Labs are common) that covers your target market.

A short checklist before you rely on a Cagayan offer

• Ask for the legal basis of the licence after Republic Act 12312, in writing.
• Check whether the licence lets you accept any player in the Philippines (it should not) and which foreign markets it claims to cover.
• Ask whether payment providers and studios will accept the licence; many now ask for a different one.
• Compare the full cost, including substance and banking, with a licence that has a published fee schedule.
• Treat this page as general information rather than legal advice, and get a written opinion from Philippine counsel.

Operator questions about CEZA

Sources and last update

CEZA publishes little about gaming, so this page leans on the statutes and on dated reporting. Where a figure could not be confirmed, we say so rather than guess.

• Republic Act 7922, Cagayan Special Economic Zone Act, 1995
• Executive Order No. 74, 5 November 2024
• Presidential Communications Office, Anti-POGO Act of 2025 (RA 12312) signing statement, 23 October 2025
• Rappler, PAGCOR statement that internet gaming licensees are covered by the ban, November 2024
• BusinessMirror, "POGO-less Ceza seeks exemption from ban", 2 January 2025
• GMA News, Palace and CEZA statements on the ban, December 2024
• Asia Gaming Brief, "Special economic zones also covered by POGO ban, CEZA affirms compliance", 3 January 2025

Last reviewed: 24 September 2026.