Since January in the Philippines, some 41,000 people have been arrested for illegal gambling. According to Inside Asian Gaming, the suspects were arrested as a result of 50,000 total investigations.
General Benjamin Acorda Jr., head of the Philippines National Police (PNP), shared details of an “intensified crackdown” in a radio interview, and also discussed the PNP’s recently announced “one-strike, no-take” policy. That policy targets law enforcement officers who fail to take appropriate action to prevent and report illegal gambling. Offending officers will be suspended and charged with dereliction of “command responsibility.”
“We will not tolerate the existence of illegal gambling activities that prey on the most vulnerable members of our society,” Acorda said. “Together with PCSO, we will deploy all necessary resources and implement stringent measures to put an end to this menace.”
PNP is focusing on eSabong, or online cockfighting, which was banned by former president Rodrigo Duterte in May 2022.
“With regards to eSabong, we have constant online monitoring,” Acorda said. “We also get some help from other agencies and in coordination with the NTC [National Telecommunications Commission], we are able to take down other websites.
“However, we encounter some problems in enforcement. For instance, our laws do not mention anything about online betting. Even if we conduct operations, the betting is done online so we do not have anything to present before the courts. But we’re trying our best to take down these websites in coordination with other agencies.”
