Philippines senator calls for review and reform of gambling laws
News on 29 Nov 2018
News on 29 Nov 2018
The land and online gambling industry in the Philippines was accused this week of making the country more “susceptible to money laundering, fraud, and other illegal activities,” in a fiery address by Senator Leila de Lima.
Launching her Senate Resolution 953, which calls on government to review and reform land and online gambling, the Senator referenced a number of recent scandals involving the industry which highlighted corruption and bribery.
Sen. de Lima said lawmakers should also review the social costs of liberalised gambling, and expressed concern regarding the safety and welfare of Filipino dealers in live dealer streamed casino action, where she alleged they are required to wear “revealing clothes”.
The Senate is currently conducting hearings into an allegedly high increase in the number of Chinese nationals working in the online gambling sector in the Philippines, and discrepancies in the number of official employment visas compared to actual numbers on the ground.
According to Foreign Affairs statistics only 18 employment visas have been granted to Chinese workers, whereas unofficial estimates put the number actually working for Philippines Online Gambling Operators in the hundreds of thousands.
However, figures from the Labour Department claim that almost half of the 115,652 employment permits it issued went to Chinese workers.
National regulator the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp chairperson Andrea Domingo said Wednesday that the organisation is planning to carry out random inspections of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators.
“We are looking into having random checks among all of the POGOs,” Domingo told local reporters, warning that any POGO caught hiring illegal workers would face a stiff fine and anyone violating the law a second time would have their license revoked.
There are 56 licensed POGOs and 200 service providers supporting their operations in the country, Domingo revealed, claiming that only one Filipino is employed for every four foreigners. A majority of foreign workers in POGOs are call center agents who speak Mandarin and Cantonese, she said, noting that Filipinos largely make up the workforce in IT support system, live studios, and platform providers.
