Politicians call for ban on POGOs

Senator Joel Villanueva of the Philippines has joined a choir of colleagues in calling for tougher measures on the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), an industry that emerged in 2016, taking advantage of the country’s lax gambling laws regarding online brands, and quickly becoming a political thorn and a constant source of tension with powerful neighbors, including China.

Galvanized by the recent raid on two gambling companies’ offices, Sen. Villanueva has said that the national regulator, PAGCOR, has been slow to enact a gambling framework that would make the operation of illegal websites impossible. PAGCOR suspended the licenses of the two companies that were targeted in the raid, but politicians still feel that the watchdog is failing to hold up its end of the bargain.

During the raid, authorities freed 731 workers who were mostly Chinese, but also foreign and Filipino citizens. The workers are said to have been held against their will and forced to work for the gambling companies. Six people were arrested and charged with human trafficking, torture, and more.

Chinese nationals tend to be the most populous group of workers in POGOs, with some 300,000 people working there at some point in the past. However, China has taken deliberate measures to restrict the outflow of its citizens not least because Chinese workers often become the victim of human trafficking.

Meanwhile, Beijing has also been finding purchase in the Philippines’ political circles, with more senators and politicians now firmly believing that POGOs would have to go, citing the economic importance of China as a local ally.

Sherwin Gatchalian, Head of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, argued recently that the industry had reached its nadir, and that POGOs must be banned in the Philippines altogether, not least because of the disturbing reports about their involvement in sex and human trafficking.

Local law enforcement has also been involved, with police officers supposedly assisting some POGOs to perpetuate their crimes and remain undetected. Villanueva is hardly the only one calling for the POGOs to be outlawed and acted firmly against it, with his colleague, Senator Aquilino Pimentel, chiming in that such a move was long overdue.

Calls for the ousting of POGOs are not exactly new and they have been heard recurrently since the beginning of the year at the very least. China has too tried to influence local politics to see the matter resolved. As discontent mounts and PAGCOR is less willing to protect the business model, the end of POGOs may indeed be nearing.

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