The head of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. denies that licensed internet gaming providers are a threat to national security. Alejandro Tengco (l.) says the bad actors are organized criminal gangs.
Alejandro Tengco, chairman and CEO of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), says the country’s regulated offshore gaming industry poses no threat to national security, and is an important source of tax revenues.
“We should not blame and demonize our licensed gaming operators, because these are closely monitored by PAGCOR,” he said in a statement. “Our licensees pay taxes, and they help provide legitimate jobs and livelihood to a lot of people.”
The operators have come under fire from lawmakers like Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who has filed a bill to ban the operators due to concerns about criminal activity including online scams and human trafficking. Senate Bill No. 2689, filed May 21, would repeal a 2021 amendment to the tax code that permitted the taxation of offshore gaming operations.
Tengco says “the real threat” is not in licensed IGLs but in “alien hacking and scam syndicates who operate underground … they are the ones that our law enforcement agencies are trying to locate and dismantle. And we are cooperating fully with the authorities in this regard.”
He asked members of the public to report any suspicious activities to help curtail illegal operations. “We do not need to outlaw POGOs; what we need to do is intensify anti-crime operations against suspected alien hackers, against scammers and cyber-criminals who are usually hiding in highly secured buildings and compounds,” he said.
Tengco’s statement was prompted by assertions from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) that as many as 100 former POGOs whose licenses have been canceled by the regulator are still operating.
The Philippine Inquirer reports that one of them, Lucky South 99, was raided on June 4, with 187 people arrested. The PAOCC described the premises as “the biggest facility in Pampanga with a reported total number of 46 buildings including villas and other structures, as well as a golf course.”
Tengco insists that illicit criminal syndicates “are not engaged in offshore gaming at all, and even if they are, they are doing it illegally. So, they are the real threat, and we must go after them with everything that we have.”
