{"id":28477,"date":"2022-03-28T10:56:55","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T13:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=28477"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:08:17","slug":"pagcor-orders-suncity-group-to-stop-all-activity-in-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-orders-suncity-group-to-stop-all-activity-in-the-philippines","title":{"rendered":"PAGCOR orders Suncity Group to stop all activity in The Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) has declared Suncity Group unsuitable to hold any licence to operate a junket business in the Philippines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- After a lengthy investigation into the misappropriation of customer funds, PAGCOR has determined that\u00a0Suncity Group<\/strong> is no longer suitable to hold a licence in the Philippines. However,\u00a0Suncity may regain eligibility <\/strong>after fulfilling certain conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These terms include that all player deposits received in the Philippines be deposited into bank accounts for this purpose only and not be mixed with any capital or working capital.\u00a0In addition, no amount may be used from any such deposit account unless withdrawn or used by the depositing player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suncity will also be required to submit a quarterly report to the regulator’s monitoring team detailing the current amount of front money deposits and the balance of the bank account in which funds are deposited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regulator found Suncity to have committed several\u00a0breaches of the country’s consumer protection standards<\/strong>, prompting a closer look at how the junket operator ran its business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suncity was accused of misappropriating funds from customers. after two groups filed complaints with PAGCOR in early 2021. Some 29 people claim funds totalling PHP1.95bn (US$ 37.3m) and HKD 160.8m (US$ 20.6m) were misappropriated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, it was revealed\u00a0that Suncity\u00a0continued to operate with cash at Star Sydney<\/a> in Australia despite a ban due to money laundering concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: <\/strong>Suncity Group expects to record US$67.3m loss for 2021<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) has declared Suncity Group unsuitable to hold any licence to operate a junket business in the Philippines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26853,"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 Amusement and Gaming Corp (PAGCOR) has declared Suncity Group unsuitable to hold a junket license in the Philippines following an investigation into the misappropriation of customer funds totaling over US$57 million. Suncity may regain eligibility by adhering to strict conditions, including segregated player deposit accounts and quarterly financial reporting to the regulator. This decision highlights significant regulatory compliance failures and consumer protection breaches by the junket operator.","focusai_entities":"Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, PAGCOR, Suncity Group, Star Sydney","focusai_location":"Philippines, Australia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Junket Operator Implications?","query":"What are the broader implications for other junket operators in the Philippines regarding PAGCOR's enhanced scrutiny and new deposit segregation requirements?"},{"label":"Suncity Global Impact?","query":"How will Suncity Group's ongoing regulatory challenges, including those in Australia, impact its global operational footprint and investor confidence?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[405,23702],"class_list":["post-28477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pagcor","tag-suncity-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28477","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=28477"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28483,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28477\/revisions\/28483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}