The Philippine gaming regulator says it “denounces” criminality linked by that country’s police to the existence of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) segment.
“Pagcor denounces these criminal acts and will not sit idly in the face of these injustices,” said the Wednesday statement from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor).
A report from the Philippine National Police, discussed on Monday at a Senate hearing into POGOs, indicated the police agency had recorded circa four times more POGO-related crimes in 2022 than in 2019, namely 40, versus nine.
The highest number of POGO-related incidents in a single year was reported in 2021 at 42, while 11 cases were reported in 2020, according to local media coverage of the topic.
Lawmakers have focused on the nature of alleged crimes, as much as the numbers, with reports of kidnap for ransom, and illegal detention, among the infractions linked to the sector.
Pagcor said in its Wednesday announcement that as well as bolstering its cooperation with various law enforcement agencies in the Philippines, if any of its POGO licensees were to be “found guilty of engaging in criminal acts, the state-run gaming agency will not hesitate to impose sanctions and penalties, as provided by the law”.
This was in order to “safeguard the integrity of the offshore gaming industry in the country,” it added.
The gaming regulator added that as a result of an “inter-agency cooperation meeting” held in September, there had been “no reported criminal activities or kidnapping-related incidents of workers in the offshore gaming industry for over three months”.
Last week, Philippine senator Sherwin Gatchalian cited the results of a public opinion survey on POGOs that indicated that 58 percent of the 1,200 respondents thought the operation of POGOs was harmful to society.
Members of the Philippine Senate committee had previously criticised Pagcor for what they said was a lack of oversight regarding the operations of POGOs.
Pagcor said last week that it aimed “to nurture this industry as it believes it has much more to contribute to the Philippine economy and nation building.”
