Spotted: BingoPlus traditional bingo to open soon in Valencia, Bukidnon (and it’s near SSS and a coop)

A new traditional bingo hall will soon open in Robinsons Place Valencia Bukidnon, offering a modern bingo gaming experience. Unlike digital or online bingo, this Bingo Plus venue in Bukidnon will operate under familiar rules: players buy physical cards, match printed numbers, and call out “Bingo!” when they complete a line or pattern on their cards. Similar to other BingoPlus stores, there will also be times when “linked” games will be held, meaning BingoPlus branches will play together online and often times, the prizes are bigger.

However, it’s uncertain if this Bukidnon bingo place will also have those electronic bingo slot machines nearby as other BingoPlus businesses in the country have both the traditional and electronic bingo.

BingoPlus is the bingo arm of PAGCOR-licensed DigiPlus Interactive.

No opening date can be found on boarded up area, located at the 2F of Robinsons Bukidnon, right across Watson’s and, quite interestingly, just a few steps away from the Social Security System office and also a cooperative.

As per their tarps, this soon-to-open bingo hall in Bukidnon only wants to offer traditional bingo. However, it must be noted that as a company, Bingo Plus also heavily promotes online gaming.

PAGCOR or Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, the government agency that licenses and oversees gambling in the country, has publicly supported tighter control and tighter implementation of regulations, not outright prohibition of online gambling. PAGCOR said that legal, licensed and regulated platforms can protected consumers than forcing “underground play” or unmonitored illegal services.

For this part, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, in a statement, dubbed the participation of financial technology companies in regulating online gambling in the country as “indispensable.”

“I welcome the stance of Fintech companies to tighten the safeguards of online gambling that has now become a scourge for many individuals, including young people,” he said, adding “I firmly believe that a united front among stakeholders would be more effective in protecting vulnerable individuals from the trap of unrestricted access to online gambling. We can only eliminate this problem if we unite with all our strength.”

This, amid Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri’s recent filing of Senate Bill No. 142, which seeks a total ban on all online gambling. Among his stated reasons are concerns over financial ruin, addiction and possible exploitation of vulnerable sectors such as low-income families as well as students.