MANILA – President-elect Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he would stop online gambling operations and ordered regulators to revoke all licenses “soon.”

“I do not want a proliferation of gambling activities all over the country. Mahirap yan,” Duterte said during a televised Cabinet meeting in Malacanang.

“Online gambling must stop. It opened up a lot of avenues. It’s out of control… Kung saan saan na lang nag-sprout. In Davao, I stopped it in time,” he said.

Duterte said earnings from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., the state gambling regulator, would be used to fund health services for the poor.