The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) has agreed to contribute PHP11.1 million (US$220,000) to the country’s Office of Cybercrime, a unit of the Department of Justice, to combat illegal iGaming.
According to GGRAsia, the funds—including an initial, partial donation of PHP5 million—will go to pay for information technology equipment.
The council aims “to handle intelligence gathering, investigations and prosecutions of illegal online gaming activities,” according to PAGCOR.
PAGCOR Chairwoman Andrea Domingo said, “We really want to help, especially if it’s related to cybercrime.”
Office of Cybercrime chief Charito Zamora said the new CyberFusion Operations Center would have “multilevel functions serving as communications facility and hands-on ready training facility. It will definitely help the council in reinforcing its fight against the rampant proliferation of illegal online gambling.”
The donation comes amid a rash of abductions purportedly related to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGOs). Philippine National Police told a Senate hearing on March 5 that there have been a total of 73 casino-related kidnappings in the past three years, including two in 2020.
According to the Philippine Inquirer, the cases involved a total of 80 victims, all Chinese nationals, who have flocked to the Philippines to work for the iGaming operations. The South China Morning Post reported that POGOS have brought about a “dramatic increase” in Chinese nationals, with one report of 200 people living in single-family homes in Manila. POGOs have also been linked to prostitution and even murders.
To counter assertions that POGOs are largely staffed by Chinese, Domingo has said about a quarter of all people working at the companies are Filipino. She noted that, according to PAGCOR’s figure, there are currently 30,520 Filipino employees working at POGOs. “This number does not include employees in the ancillary industries such as real estate, transportation, and retail,” she added. PAGCOR data contends that POGOs employ over 120,000 workers, of whom about 70,000 are Chinese nationals.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon says the POGO industry is “not worth it. The fees generated by PAGCOR is less than one third of 1 percent of our economy, yet all these social problems really point to the policy of stopping POGOs, because it is not worth what we see of adverse effects on society.”
The Philippines stopped accepting applications for iGaming licenses in August 2019. The suspension came amid growing concerns in the country about lost employment opportunities for locals, unpaid taxes by some online operators, and a rise in crime.
In related news, the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council says POGOs have “a low level of awareness” about the risks of money laundering and terrorism financing. As part of a risk assessment on POGOs, the AMLC said it found “an increasing level of threat” concerning money laundering and other fraudulent activities; a high number of unregulated or unsupervised “service providers” to the online industry; and a “low level” of “identification” regarding who ultimately owned the companies involved in the online gaming business.
The AMLC statement may add to the call for stronger oversight or even suspension of the iGaming sector in the Philippines. But President Rodrigo Duterte has defended the operations, saying the country needs the revenues, and urged lawmakers to regulate POGOs, instead of shutting them down.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte “is okay with POGO operations.”
As reported by Inside Asian Gaming, Domingo recently revealed that PAGCOR expects to triple its income from POGOs in 2020 to around PHP18 billion (US$354 million), up from PHP5.74 billion (US$113 million) in 2019.
“The problems linked to POGO operations can be solved,” Panelo said. “All you have to do is to implement, establish rules and regulations.”
According to official numbers, there are 60 licensed POGOs in the Philippines.
