Filipino online cockfighting to be outlawed

ONLINE cockfighting is to be banned in the Philippines following the disappearance of dozens of workers and concerns about the social costs of gambling.

Cockfighting is a popular sport in the country, but Covid-19 forced the closure of traditional arenas where spectators flocked to watch roosters wearing bladed spurs fight to the death.

The government instead granted licences to seven firms to show the gruesome contests and take bets online – known as “e-sabong” – 24 hours a day.

Online cockfighting came under scrutiny this year after the alleged kidnapping and suspected murder of 34 people who had supplied roosters to a licenced e-sabong operator.

Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who held a public hearing into the sport in March, said the victims were suspected of sabotaging the birds so they would lose their fights, then bet on the other.

Online cockfight operators told the hearing that about three billion pesos (£45million) is bet on cockfights in the Philippines every day.

Reports emerged of fans becoming addicted to gambling, neglecting their work and families, and pawning assets for bets.

In one extreme case, a young mother from Manila was accused of selling her eight-month-old daughter for 45,000 pesos (£682) to a buyer she contacted through social media in March to pay off e-sabong debts.