Topic: One of the biggest gambling hub in PH is now closed. - page 5. (Read 1300 times)

Sigh,

I thought the gambling hub closed down because they're in loss, but it's actually due to suspected guilty.

Honestly it's not surprising to see that, many people who work in casinos are mostly illegal immigrants, even worse the casino is illegal in the first place, but they're protected by the police and the government.

They will close the business only when the news are blow up to social medias and viral. But, most of the cases they only close in that place, but they open the new one on other place lol.

That's quite a number with the total number mentioned being 20k, the question is what will happen to them and what will be done. This will be based on politics, Chinese taxes because if you look at it, the Philippines is quite friendly to crypto and they haven't made any strict bans on their citizens at all so the closure that was done might be very political and we might need to look at the basis.

I don't see any major influence of crypto players from the Philippines and I haven't gotten any details on the relationship between POGOs and crypto. Another indication might be that the POGO gaming operating platforms are involved in crimes like illegal drug trafficking which is causing them problems.

Sometimes I think about that where the government already make regulation to control the business. But the business owner especially for those who super rich can search for a gap so they can use that for their benefit. I am suspicious that the business owner have a relationship with some officials and they gets an advice for the gap that they can use to continue or modify their operation with some new ways. I guess the black market have a support from some strong officials that can not be touched by the other officials so that makes the black market still operate without many people know where is the location. So that will not easy to shut down the illegal business because the officials must check everything and find if there is a corrupt officials behind on that business.

I am not entirely sure if casinos operating under POGO are accepting crypto but as far as I know, they are more focused on FIAT payments. casinos operating under POGO are focused on servicing foreign nationals and from what I remember Filipinos are usually restricted from playing in casinos operating under POGO(I am not 100% sure). also, the Philippines has a gambling regulatory board called PAGCOR and casinos operating under it accept Filipino gamblers.

anyway, it is most likely that crypto gamblers from the Philippines were really affected when POGO closed.

There are several allegations that criminals were using the Philippine offshore gaming operation (POGO) platforms to engage in crimes like illegal drug dealings, scam, kidnapping, and human trafficking. If these allegations are true, then the government is taking the right step.

Indeed this closing of this multinational platform will make the government to lose revenue and some workers will lose jobs but this move will reduce crime to a large extent. But it is better to reduce crime because it give the country a bad reputation which reduces foreign investments. It is common for criminals to take advantage of legitimate avenues to carryout illegal jobs.

20k people is really a lot, and it attracts attention. I went through the thread, it seems to be politics/taxes/China/etc... I don't want to go into details it is what it is. But what I haven't seen, and I'm interested in is the following:

Does POGO have anything to do with crypto?
Does the shutdown of this gambling platform affect crypto players from the Philippines?

I read that the Chinese are a very gambling people. They are much more gambling, for example, than Europeans. At the same time, gambling is prohibited in China itself. The Communist Party of China is trying to control the hobbies of its citizens.

POGO casinos in the Philippines were opened specifically for Chinese citizens who did not have the opportunity to gamble in mainland China. It is clear that those Chinese who, despite direct prohibitions, are ready to go to another country just to gamble are adventurers.

Probably, there were criminals among them (at least this is what the President of the Philippines said). In addition, China has long been actively calling on the Philippines to close these casinos.

Therefore, the fact of the closure of POGO casinos does not surprise me.

I don't know about my fellow Filipinos but I am still a bit annoyed with how the government fumbled this money-making opportunity if this gambling hub had been handled properly this could have turned much bigger and helped the country's economy but because the majority of the officials in the Philippine government are extremely corrupt it turned into a criminal hub. that being said, this just further showed just how incompetent the government is.

Better safe than sorry, right? We sometimes become skeptical around links, especially at a time like now with bull run on and that's quite understandable. Anyway, I believe OP didn't mean any harm with the links supplied here.

That was exactly what I thought (that the issue could be political) when I read the article. Otherwise, we know casinos don't easily fold up like that.

Unfortunately in countries in which corruption is high this is impossible, because as soon as the regulation is passed, it is not up to those same people to supervise it is implemented appropriately, so it is very easy for corrupt business owners to bribe the police officers so they look the other way as they break the law, however making illegal those operations is not the way to go either, as in that case criminals will be in charge of those operations and they will not pay any taxes to the government.

Maybe yeah but that could be rare due to how risky it was because their identities might be revealed already and they can not escape anymore once they got caught out, unless only if there is also corrupt officials involved as you said there. That was scary. As a regular individual, we may not achieve a justice anymore once we got in trouble.

Definitely is, I heard a lot of negative sentiments before about them. Let's just hope that all, and similar entities are going to have the same faith and that might greatly help the country of the Philippines. Gambling might pose a threat to a person but not all gambling places are like these POGO that are deemed illegal, so they might still continue to operate.

Gambling still have a certain benefit, so all what a person need is just a self-control and then it would be better if gambling places can cooperate like they will talk to the player once they see their accounts loaded with deposits, which are unusual already compared to their normal playing times. Speaking about crimes, indeed that other crimes can be done as well. Like for example sexual abuse. This is why as you said, it is important to combat the root cause of it. About taxes, as I said earlier, some gambling places might still be allowed and the government can still request a tax on them.

I just finished reading what Philstar had to say about this and even went on reading further on this Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO), for the abbreviation was so strange to my gambling knowledge. Frankly, this is sad, it is an unexpected clamping down on establishments which are profiting the country. Perhaps the country wants a different ownership, I don't know. What I know is that the offline business that is remitting taxes to the country is being forced to close down in the name of visa downgrading, to what gain? That country can be so funny.

I hope new casinos will come in, similar to POGO operations that cater to Chinese players, because we can’t deny that the government earned billions of pesos from these operations. If only they had been effectively regulated, there wouldn’t have been such major issues.

The problem is, with high corruption, starting with the Bureau of Immigration. POGO employees were even allowed to work without proper visas because companies were bribing officials. It’s like the Philippine government wasn’t doing its job properly, which is why things ended up this way.

I guess it all starts with cleaning up the system first. Without addressing corruption, similar operations will just face the same problems.

Whether it’s political or not, they deserved this decision. Allowing them to continue would only lead to their numbers growing and more people getting dragged into their illegal activities. We can say that it might have a significant impact on the country’s economy, but what good is that if they’re the ones contributing to the nation’s downfall?

It’s the government’s responsibility to take them down, especially since their operations are no longer within the bounds of the law. In fact, they’ve been called scam hubs, using gambling casinos as a front for their true intentions.
So, goodbye, POGO hubs, and thank you for the few years you stayed. It’s time to move on.

That’s not how it works. POGOs are licensed to operate in the Philippines, but their target market isn’t local, it’s primarily Chinese customers, since gambling is illegal in mainland China. So, their closure doesn’t really benefit local casinos financially. In fact, no one profits from shutting them down. But it’s a necessary move for the government to address the crimes tied to these operations.

POGOs have also been linked to crypto scams, operating on a large scale while using online casinos as a front. Shutting them down isn’t just about money; it’s about stopping these criminal activities and protecting the country’s reputation.

True that, in fact there are still online gambling that is licensed to operate in the country. Even if the largest hub is closed, it will only redirect these players to other local platforms or local casinos and eventually online gambling.  I believe it is not the gambling activity that is the reason behind this closure but lots of illegal stuff aside from gambling is happening in this hubs.  That includes kidnapping, drug selling, even others are suspected to be people planted to the country through these gambling hubs for espionage.

For sure this had gone through tons of debates and discussions on which considering that POGO issue on Philippines had been long time being discussed and now they've ended up on banning or closing it down on which it will really be raising up some eyebrows on such decision on which it will really be that too impossible that there would really be no corruption is really that getting involved on this one. It did turned out that
the majority had that decided to come up with the same conclusion on which i could say that it is really that for the good. It will really be that making its citizens to get out with possible addiction knowing that Philippines is a 3rd world country and it will really be also avoiding for its citizens to become that addicted and spending up tons of money despite of their poor condition. So i do see this to be a good decision had been made by the government.

If this is the case then the closure of the POGO is a step in the right direction for the Philippine government, anything that poses a threath to the well being of their citizens should be a paramount priority. I now that gambling is not a crime but when it has been proven that crimes are being perpetuated through perticular establishments that affiliates with gambling, the best thing is to close it down. For them to forgo the taxation that they are generating from the POGO establishments shows that serious crimes are being carried out through them. Proactive leadership is about prioritizing the well being of citizens over money that can be made from sources that are detrimental to them

Some of these operators may have licenses, but illegal activities still happen, as you’ve pointed out. While the government profits from these operations, allowing scammers to thrive could seriously damage the country’s reputation on an international level. It’s not a good look if we’re seen as enabling these activities.

I’m curious about what will happen to the facility. It’s huge, and if they owe the government significant taxes, especially if they’ve been underpaying, then the government might take it over and turn it into a public asset. For those who thought gamblign is illegal in the philippines, not its not, and there are still plenty of big casinos in the country that are complying with the law.

Mate, read the context here. It isn’t just the country shutting down gambling hubs. They’re shutting down a gambling hub that has been used for other illicit activities.

It is not just a flimsy excuse to shut down this operation. It is genuinely harming the people of the country. We should try to be more informed considering that we do not know much about what is going in a country. Not everything is ill intentioned towards gambling.