The intensified drive of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. against illegal online gambling firms helped law enforcers in shutting down a fly-by-night firm and led to the arrest of their Chinese employees, the regulator said.
In a statement, Pagcor lauded the police operation that led to the arrest of 265 Chinese nationals involved in an unregistered Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator in Las Pinas City late last week.
The gaming regulator cited its intensified efforts to crackdown non-registered offshore gaming operators — which it calls “NOGOs” — which resulted in another successful raid against illegal gambling operations a few days after a similar facility was discovered in Makati City.
According to Pagcor’s chief of POGO licensing Jose Tria Jr., it is relatively easy for authorities to trace illegal offshore gaming operators since only a limited number of sites will be allowed to resume partial operations under strict conditions.
“These NOGOs are unaware that POGOs which will resume operations will undergo thorough evaluation and inspection from Pagcor,” Tria said. “So we know which specific sites will be allowed to resume operations. Consequently, NOGOs right now are easily identifiable since not all POGO sites will resume operations.”
Apart from implementing rules to effectively regulate POGO operations in the country, Pagcor said has been working closely with the Philippine National Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Justice’s Office of Cybercrime to curb illegal gambling operations.
These agencies earlier formed a task force to handle intelligence gathering on illegal online gambling, centralized information sharing, intelligence operations, surveillance, raids, arrest and prosecution of these illicit activities.
In the discharge of its vital functions in the task force, the gaming regulator said it validates licenses, provides business, tax and other information on record to help arrest and penalize illegal gambling operators in the country.