Niña Taduran, assistant majority leader of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the House Committee on Games and Amusement, has filed a resolution urging Congress to look into the tax compliance of integrated resorts and casinos in the Philippines.
In House Resolution 627, the ACT-CIS Party member urged the lower chamber to look into reports of this declaration of revenue by integrated resorts, which would affect gaming taxes paid to the government.
According to the Manila Bulletin, the lawmaker’s antenna were raised by a report from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), which said investment bank Credit Suisse forecast earnings of PH 297.4 billion (US$5.8 billion) from casinos for 2018, though the gaming halls only reached PH 200 billion (US$3.9 billion).
“An inquiry and audit on the GGR of these casinos will be beneficial in ensuring that the right taxes are paid to the government,” she said. “The social services being provided to the public by the government are being funded partly by the taxes paid by these casinos.”
There are nine private casino firms in the Philippines operating 1,580 gaming tables and 9,895 electronic gaming machines, according to the government. In addition to serving as the regulator, PAGCOR also operates several casinos with 470 tables and 9,679 gaming machines.
In other Philippines gaming news, concerns continue to build about a “Chinese crime wave” linked to the growth of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs), land-based iGaming businesses run mostly by and for the Chinese. The South China Morning Post last month reported the latest in a rash of bold kidnappings in which a victim identified as Zhou Mei was pulled screaming into a van in full view of bystanders in Manila’s Makati district. The crime was part of “a long string of abductions involving and perpetrated by mainland Chinese,” the Post reported.
PAGCOR began issuing POGO licenses in 2016 after President Rodrigo Duterte took office, and business has been booming ever since. The operations cater to mainland Chinese who love gambling but cannot legally partake in their homeland. Since 2017, there have been 67 gambling-related kidnappings in the Philippines, with nearly all the victims Chinese, according to the Philippine National Police Anti-kidnapping Group. But Teresita Ang-See, chairwoman of the anti-crime watchdog Movement for the Restoration of Peace and Order, questions that figure and says it may be much higher.
“Before, it was once a month, twice a month, then it became once a week, twice a week,” she said. “Now it’s two to three cases involving Chinese every day in Metro Manila.”
The victims are usually Chinese tourists who borrow money to gamble from loan sharks and are held for ransom when they cannot repay it. Other victims are POGO employees, some of whom are reportedly trying to return to the mainland. The Post reported in September that Chinese nationals committing these crimes are sometimes helped by rogue Philippine police.
The POGOs also may be paying less than their fair share of taxes. According to the Philippine Star, the Philippines’ Department of Finance has said “many POGO license holders were not remitting the income taxes of employees,” meaning the loss of “billions of pesos” in lost revenues.
Congressman Joey Salceda has claimed there are at least 100 POGOs operating illegally, and in October the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that the government shut down nearly 200 illegal gambling operations last year.
Duterte has threatened errant operators with retaliation, saying he would shoot them with a pellet gun if they did not pay their taxes.
