Proxy betting at risk?
The situation about iGaming in the Philippines continues to be murky.
Last week, law enforcers in the Philippines will continue the countrywide crackdown on illegal cyber-gaming.
According to Reuters, the governments of the Philippines and the Peoples’ Republic of China are cooperating in the hunt for unregulated online gaming rings. Last month, they closed down four illegal websites, detained 99 people and froze more than 1,000 bank accounts, according to China’s Public Security Bureau.
NBI Chief Martini Cruz said it’s just the start of a long war on illegal online gaming. “We have been visited by Chinese police to crack down on these illegal gambling operators. They are also targeting possible fugitives who have made our country a sanctuary,” Cruz said.
That could mean an end to proxy betting, which is presently permitted in licensed casinos in the Philippines and has helped the industry grow VIP revenues. Data showed that casinos in the country generated some US$3 billion in overall revenue last year, reported CalvinAyre.com. Proxy betting—in which high rollers phone in their bets to proxies at the table—is banned in Singapore and in Macau, but is growing so rapidly in the Philippines that Suncity, the top Chinese junket runner, told Reuters in April that 80 percent of its business comes from proxy gambling and only 20 percent from customers who actually visit the casinos.
Andrea Domingo, the head of the state-run gaming regulator, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., told Reuters she’s not familiar with proxy betting. “It is allowed in the casinos. I am not very conversant about it,” she said.
Meanwhile, Philippine regulator PAGCOR has announced a new category of offshore licensing for “Sports Betting on Regulated Wagering Events.”
The category applies to “an offshore gaming operator that accepts and/or facilitates wagers on regulated gaming events,” according to an announcement from the regulator. The category includes horse and dog racing and allows companies to provide live event audio and visual feeds of regulated gaming events, provided it has express permission from the event.
Licensees must also adhere to the regulated event’s fees and tax requirements in the Philippines. Licensees will pay 1.5 percent of their gross gaming revenue on a monthly basis, along with all other fees normally associated with PAGCOR licensing, reports said.
