{"id":17178,"date":"2021-04-23T15:07:53","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T15:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=17178"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:06:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:06:59","slug":"the-philippines-government-warns-over-illegal-pogos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-philippines-government-warns-over-illegal-pogos","title":{"rendered":"The Philippines\u2019 government warns over illegal POGOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Philippines\u2019 government has issued a warning about illegal POGOs operating in the country after a Taiwanese worker was hired and kept as a slave worker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- The\u00a0<strong>Department of Labor and Employment<\/strong>\u00a0has issued a warning over illegal POGO operations in the country after a\u00a0<strong>Taiwanese worker claimed he was hired by a Chinese online gambling<\/strong>\u00a0company and then kept as a slave worker until he was rescued by police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has also reported that\u00a0<strong>certain Chinese companies were operating in the country as POGO<\/strong>\u00a0without a licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/what-are-pogos-and-who-is-allowed-to-play-on-them\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">POGOs<\/a>&nbsp;are<strong>&nbsp;online gambling companies that operate in the Philippines<\/strong>&nbsp;but offer their services to customers outside of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Philippine National Police Anti-Kidnapping Group,<strong>\u00a0illegal POGOs recruit staff through social media accounts<\/strong>, advertising fake positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Silvestre Bello III<\/strong>, labour secretary, said <strong>illegal POGOs usually promise attractive salaries<\/strong>\u00a0and warned people to be cautious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In March, the government called\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pogos-must-register-for-anti-money-laundering-reporting\">POGOs<\/a>\u00a0to register for an electronic reporting system\u00a0<strong>following an amendment to the Philippines\u2019 Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Philippines\u2019 government has issued a warning about illegal POGOs operating in the country after a Taiwanese worker was hired and kept as a slave worker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Philippine government has issued a stern warning regarding illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) following a reported case of human trafficking and slave labor involving a Taiwanese worker. Both the Department of Labor and Employment and PAGCOR have highlighted the proliferation of unlicensed Chinese online gambling companies operating within the country, prompting concerns over regulatory compliance and the integrity of the iGaming sector.","focusai_entities":"Department of Labor and Employment, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Philippine National Police Anti-Kidnapping Group, Silvestre Bello III","focusai_location":"Philippines, Taiwan","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.95), operator_casino (0.85), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Regulatory Impact","query":"What specific enforcement actions and policy adjustments are anticipated from PAGCOR and the Department of Labor and Employment to mitigate the proliferation of unlicensed POGOs and address human trafficking concerns?"},{"label":"AML Compliance Evolution","query":"How will the recent amendments to the Philippines' Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 and the mandate for an electronic reporting system enhance oversight and prevent illicit financial flows within the POGO sector?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,16338,158],"tags":[4138,405,15789],"class_list":["post-17178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casino-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-online-gambling","tag-pagcor","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17178","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=17178"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17196,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17178\/revisions\/17196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}