{"id":16774,"date":"2021-04-12T15:10:40","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T15:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=16774"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:27:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:27:48","slug":"manila-eases-covid-19-restrictions-but-casinos-remain-closed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/manila-eases-covid-19-restrictions-but-casinos-remain-closed","title":{"rendered":"Manila eases Covid-19 restrictions but casinos remain closed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Metro Manila will come under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) measures until April 30. However, casinos and other gaming establishments will remain closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- The government has announced that \u00a0Metro Manila<\/strong>\u00a0and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal will now enter into the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) until April 30.\u00a0The announcement comes after two weeks under the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ)<\/em><\/a>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said that under the new MECQ, people must stay at home, but businesses are allowed to reopen at 50 per cent<\/strong> capacity. The curfew from 8pm to 5am will remain in place<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the government, casinos, lottery and betting shops, horse racing and cockfighting places will remain closed<\/strong>, except for draws conducted by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Philippines Department of Health has reported 11,681 new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International Monetary Fund urges the Philippines to take action against money laundering<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) referred to the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) in a report that evaluates the stability of the country’s financial system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said authorities should resolve the conflict of interest arising from Pagcor\u2019s<\/strong><\/strong> responsibilities for operating casinos<\/strong> and anti-money laundering supervision<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also stated: “[Pagcor] should effectively apply risk mitigation and risk-based supervision measures<\/strong> regarding targeting casino junket operators.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metro Manila will come under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) measures until April 30. However, casinos and other gaming establishments will remain closed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":16775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Metro Manila and surrounding provinces will remain under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) until April 30, keeping casinos and other gaming establishments closed. Concurrently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Philippines to address anti-money laundering (AML) deficiencies, specifically highlighting the conflict of interest in Pagcor's dual role as operator and supervisor, and the need for enhanced risk-based supervision of casino junket operators.","focusai_entities":"Rodrigo Duterte, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Philippines Department of Health, International Monetary Fund, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, Philippines Congress","focusai_location":"Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.95), payments_fraud_aml (0.95), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.85)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"MECQ Impact on GGR?","query":"What is the projected impact of the extended MECQ on Q2 Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) for integrated resorts and other licensed gaming verticals in the Philippines?"},{"label":"Pagcor Conflict Resolution?","query":"What specific legislative or executive actions are anticipated to resolve the conflict of interest identified by the IMF regarding Pagcor's dual role as both a casino operator and an anti-money laundering supervisor?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,16333],"tags":[23907,17913],"class_list":["post-16774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-land-based-casino","tag-metro-manila"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16774"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16797,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16774\/revisions\/16797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

In March, a bicameral conference committee from the Philippines Congress approved\u00a0a proposal to amend the 2001 Anti-Money Laundering Act<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"