The head of the Philippine Senate’s Ways and Means Committee is pushing for a swift and permanent end to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs). Senator Sherwin Gatchalian wants to shut down the controversial operations in three months, according to GGRAsia.
“The data and evidence on hand all point to the same conclusion: enough is enough,” Gatchalian said. “It is time to ban offshore gaming operations in the Philippines, once and for all.”
A new report on the sector contends that POGOs aren’t making “significant economic contributions” to the economy and also are bringing “growing criminal influence” to the country. Some POGOs have been associated with crimes including kidnapping, human trafficking and assault. Gatchalian said POGO operators are “no longer businessmen, they are foreign criminals in our country.” He alleges that POGO-linked corruption has infiltrated the Bureau of Immigration and Bureau of Internal Revenue.
According to Channel News Asia, Senator Risa Hontiveros uncovered a trafficking scheme that offered sexual services to POGO workers. She subsequently called for the suspension of all offshore gaming operations, saying they “attract criminals into (the) country.” Senator Grace Poe is another outspoken opponent of the offshore operations.
Police data shows that 40 POGO-related kidnapping incidents were recorded in 2022. Wilson Lee Flores, of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said most POGO operators in the Philippines “are illegal entrepreneurs of China.
“We don’t want the Philippines to be known in China, and all of Asia, as the playground or the haven for illegal entrepreneurs,” he said.
Meanwhile, last month the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) terminated its contract with a third-party auditor responsible for auditing POGOs, saying the service provider was found to be “in default of its obligations” and to “have committed unlawful acts.” Global ComRCI allegedly provided misleading documentation to land the contract, including a falsified certification from Soleil Chartered Bank’s (SCB) New York branch.
While some of Gatchalian’s colleagues support an eventual end to POGOs, they don’t agree that it can be done in three months, given that the industry employs some 25,000 Filipinos and thousands more foreign workers.
“I don’t believe three months is adequate time and notice to wrap up operations, especially for those who have made substantial investments,” Senator Sonny Angara told the Philippine News Agency. “A longer period would be more reasonable/justified given it was also the government which invited them to invest in the first place.”
Speaking to Asia Gaming Brief last month, PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Alejandro H. Tengco said the regulator continues to support legal and law-abiding operations.
“For as long as they continue to employ Filipinos, for as long as they continue to spend—whether in restaurants, in the retail industry, in the real estate industry—I am of the belief that I will be supporting the POGO industry, the overseas gaming licensees,” Tengco told AGB on the sidelines of the ASEAN Gaming Summit in Manila.
