MANILA - At least 3 offshore gaming firms in the country shut operations for fear of getting "over-taxed," the head of the country's gaming regulator said Monday.

Out of the 57 licensed POGOs or Philippine Offshore Gaming Operatons, 3 have moved elsewhere, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp Chairperson Andrea Domingo said.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez earlier ordered the consolidation of list of all foreign nationals working in POGOs to aid in the collection of personal income taxes.

"I was told that they got scared because they might be over-taxed or something like that," Domingo told ANC's Early Edition.

"But we don’t worry because what we’re doing now is that we’re marketing outside Asia, we started marketing in London," she added.

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At least 2 firms from Europe and London could set up in the country later this year, she said.

PAGCOR is working with the Bureau of Internal Revenue to address uncollected taxes from foreign workers. One problem is that special work permits were issued without an accompanying TIN or tax identification number.