Philippines senator wants a probe into internet gambling
News on 8 Dec 2011
News on 8 Dec 2011
Philippines Senator and chairman of the senate committee on games and amusement, Aquilino Pimentel III, has called for an investigation of land casino and internet gambling in the country, explaining that he is concerned by the rising number of gambling venues.
The Philippines Enquirer reports that Pimentel particularly wants to find out if all e-gaming stations in Metro Manila and other cities are properly licensed.
“There is a need to check not only the legality of these new forms of gambling operated around the country, but their effects on law and order,” he said in a statement Thursday.
Pimentel said the Senate will also review the laws regulating the operation of casinos as well as the relationships of private casinos’ with gaming bodies like the Philippine Gaming Corporation or Pagcor.
Officials of Pagcor and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), he said, will then be summoned by his committee to brief it fully on the current state of gambling regulation in the country.
“At the same time, the Senate inquiry intends to look into gambling’s adverse effects on the local populace, especially the youth,” said the senator.
“It cannot be discounted that rivalries between big time operators of different gambling activities can give rise to a deterioration of law and order,” he said.
