{"id":777016194,"date":"2024-06-06T08:39:39","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T11:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777016194"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:26:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:26:58","slug":"187-people-rescued-from-gaming-operation-in-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/187-people-rescued-from-gaming-operation-in-the-philippines","title":{"rendered":"187 people rescued from gaming operation in the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Those rescued included 158 foreigners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- Authorities have reportedly rescued 187 workers, including 158 foreigners (Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysians, Myanmarese and Koreans), from an offshore gaming operator in Pampanga province. The foreigners rescued are undergoing biometric checks by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to verify their identities and legal status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) said the operation involved coordination with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Special Action Force and local police. It took place on Tuesday night (June 4) at the Lucky South 99 compound on Friendship Highway in Angeles City. A search warrant was issued by the Malolos City Regional Trial Court Branch 14 based on reports of human trafficking, torture and scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAOCC spokesperson Winston John Casio <\/strong>told a television channel that initial reports indicated severe abuse at the compound. He said victims were allegedly struck with baseball bats and kicked. A video surfaced showing a woman being forced to dance and subjected to abuse by people identified as bosses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future of POGOs remains in doubt. In May, senator Win Gatchalian<\/strong> introduced\u00a0Senate Bill 2689<\/strong>, seeking to prohibit the operations of offshore gaming companies<\/a>. This bill aims to repeal Republic Act 11590, which was enacted on September 22, 2021 by former president Rodrigo Duterte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He referenced several incidents such as the police raid at the Colorful and Leap Group, a POGO hub in Clark Freeport Zone<\/a>, which led to the rescue of around a thousand foreigners and over a hundred Filipinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See also: <\/strong>49 police officers relieved amid investigation of Bamban mayor<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those rescued included 158 foreigners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":20663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Philippine authorities rescued 187 workers, including 158 foreigners, from an offshore gaming operator in Pampanga province, citing allegations of human trafficking, torture, and scams. This incident intensifies regulatory scrutiny on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), coinciding with legislative efforts, such as Senate Bill 2689, to prohibit their operations and repeal existing enabling laws.","focusai_entities":"Bureau of Immigration, Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Special Action Force, Malolos City Regional Trial Court Branch 14, Lucky South 99, Winston John Casio, Win Gatchalian, Rodrigo Duterte, Colorful and Leap Group","focusai_location":"Philippines, Pampanga province, Angeles City, Malolos City, Clark Freeport Zone, Bamban","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Ban Economic Impact","query":"What are the projected economic implications for the Philippine economy, including potential job losses and revenue shortfalls, should Senate Bill 2689 successfully prohibit all POGO operations?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution","query":"How will the proposed repeal of Republic Act 11590 necessitate a re-evaluation of existing B2B\/B2C licensing frameworks and regulatory compliance requirements for all iGaming stakeholders in the Philippines?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[15789],"class_list":["post-777016194","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\/777016194","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=777016194"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777016210,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016194\/revisions\/777016210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777016194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777016194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777016194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}