{"id":777001956,"date":"2023-02-01T13:20:19","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T16:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777001956"},"modified":"2026-04-23T01:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T04:01:20","slug":"the-philippines-registered-40-pogo-related-crimes-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/the-philippines-registered-40-pogo-related-crimes-in-2022","title":{"rendered":"The Philippines registered 40 POGO-related crimes in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

POGO-related crimes were down slightly year-on-year but stilll much higher than in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Philippine authorities reported 40 crimes related to Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGO) <\/strong>in 2022. That’s down from 42 in 2021 but much higher than the nine cases reported in 2019. No cases were recorded in 2017 or 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Asia Gaming Brief, out of the 102 cases reported since 2019, only one resulted in a conviction. The incidents include reports of illegal detention, ransom, and kidnapping<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the victims were from China, followed by the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and others. A head of the police investigation unit said 299 victims have been rescued, while 16 were injured and one died. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate over POGOs continues. PAGCOR has defended the industry<\/strong>, claiming no criminal activities or kidnapping incidents have been reported in the past three months. However, senator Sherwin Gatchalian <\/strong>has recently shared the results of a survey by Pulse Asia that shows that 58 per cent of respondents<\/a> think Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) are harmful to the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senator has said he was working on a detailed report on the outlook of online gaming in The Philippines<\/a> and that a ban on POGOs won\u2019t affect the economy<\/strong>. Gatchalian said that POGOs contribute PHP35bn annually in income taxes but that in the third quarter of 2022, the collection was only PHP7.2bn, projected to reach about PHP8.5bn in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audit firm hired by PAGCOR to look at POGO finances is under scrutiny<\/a>. Global ComRCI hired an unregistered bank to prove it had the required PHP1.3bn (US$25m) in funds to meet PAGCOR\u2019s tender requirements and was not registered in Makati City despite having a business address in the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

POGO-related crimes were down slightly year-on-year but stilll much higher than in 2019.<\/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":"POGO-related criminal activities in the Philippines, including illegal detention and kidnapping, remain significantly elevated compared to pre-2019 levels, despite a marginal year-on-year decrease, with a notably low conviction rate. The sector faces intense public scrutiny and a potential ban, challenging PAGCOR's defense of its economic contributions and raising concerns over regulatory oversight, particularly regarding the integrity of its appointed audit firm, Global ComRCI.","focusai_entities":"PAGCOR, Sherwin Gatchalian, Pulse Asia, Global ComRCI, Asia Gaming Brief","focusai_location":"Philippines, China, Thailand, Myanmar, Makati City","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.85), payments_fraud_aml (0.75), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR Governance Review","query":"What specific governance frameworks and enhanced due diligence protocols will PAGCOR implement to restore confidence in its regulatory oversight and audit processes, particularly concerning third-party firms like Global ComRCI?"},{"label":"POGO Ban Economic Impact","query":"How would a comprehensive POGO ban impact the Philippines' overall GGR and NGR, and what contingency plans are being considered for the displaced workforce and the broader economic contributions?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[15789],"class_list":["post-777001956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001956","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=777001956"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777001994,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777001956\/revisions\/777001994"}],"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=777001956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777001956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777001956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}