{"id":31691,"date":"2022-07-13T02:28:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T05:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=31691"},"modified":"2026-04-23T06:56:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:56:22","slug":"pagcor-issues-aml-guidelines-to-aid-casinos-in-dealing-with-junkets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-issues-aml-guidelines-to-aid-casinos-in-dealing-with-junkets","title":{"rendered":"PAGCOR issues AML guidelines to aid casinos in dealing with junkets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The guidelines aim to strengthen casinos’ anti-money laundering and terrorism financing controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- The\u00a0Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation\u00a0<\/strong>(PAGCOR) has issued new guidelines entitled \u201cCasino Guide for a Fitness and Proprietary Assessment for Junket Operators\u201d. The document aims to aid land-based casinos in their obligations to assess the fitness and propriety nature of junket operators and related associates, agents or promoters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the regulator, the guidelines describe the criteria to determine whether any junket operator or applicant for junket operations is “fit and proper”. It forms part of\u00a0PAGCOR’s commitment to tighten controls to combat money laundering\u00a0<\/strong>and terrorist financing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key criteria include an analysis of whether “key individuals have been convicted, on indictment of dishonesty, fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing, theft, or financial crimes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another criteria is to check for “an agreement with creditors, filing for bankruptcy upon declaration of bankruptcy, having been the subject of a bankruptcy petition or a key individual involved in proceedings relating to any of these matters”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junket operators must pass the new checks to maintain agreements with Philippine land-based casinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June, the Financial Action Task Force<\/a> (FATF) updated its grey list of jurisdictions that require increased monitoring due to the risk of financial crime, and the Philippines remains listed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FATF acknowledged that the Philippines had \u201ctaken steps to improve its AML\/CFT regime\u201d since last June<\/a>. However, it listed seven areas where more work is needed to address the country\u2019s \u201cstrategic deficiencies\u201d related to AML and CFT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the recommendations, it said the Philippines needs to demonstrate that it uses AML and CFT controls \u201cto mitigate risks associated with casino junkets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The guidelines aim to strengthen casinos’ anti-money laundering and terrorism financing controls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":26496,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"PAGCOR has issued new guidelines for assessing the fitness and propriety of junket operators, aiming to strengthen anti-money laundering and terrorism financing controls within Philippine land-based casinos. This regulatory update directly addresses the Financial Action Task Force's recommendations for the Philippines, which remains on its grey list due to strategic deficiencies in AML\/CFT, particularly concerning casino junkets. The new criteria mandate rigorous checks on operators' financial integrity and criminal history to mitigate financial crime risks.","focusai_entities":"Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Financial Action Task Force (FATF)","focusai_location":"Philippines","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 (0.8), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR's Enforcement Impact","query":"How will PAGCOR's enforcement of these new junket operator guidelines impact the gross gaming revenue (GGR) and net gaming revenue (NGR) of Philippine land-based casinos, particularly concerning high-roller segments?"},{"label":"FATF Grey List Exit","query":"What specific metrics or compliance milestones will the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) require from the Philippines to demonstrate sufficient mitigation of casino junket risks, enabling its removal from the grey list?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,16333],"tags":[405],"class_list":["post-31691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pagcor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31691","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=31691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31737,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31691\/revisions\/31737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}