A security expert had described operators as “Trojan horses” that China might use to launch surprise attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Philippines.-\u00a0Alejandro H. Tengco<\/strong>, chairman and CEO of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has\u00a0refuted claims that there are licensed offshore gambling operators near military installations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His comments come after defence secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr<\/strong> said such operators should be shut down amid claims from a security expert that operators were “Trojan horses” that could be used by China to stage “surprise attacks” against military installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tengco said any businesses in such locations were operating illegally. He said 255 former POGOs had their licences revoked in September 2023 due to unlawful activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this week, PAGCOR’s chairman argued that the threat to national security<\/a> came from alien hacking and scam syndicates (AHaSS) not legitimate internet gaming licensees. He added that internet gaming licensees<\/a>\u00a0contributed over PHP5bn to PAGCOR\u2019s gross revenue in 2023, providing financial support to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surigao del Norte 2nd district representative\u00a0Robert Ace Barbers<\/strong>, chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs,\u00a0<\/strong>has added his voice to calls for a ban on offshore gambling operators in the Philippines. He said the operators pose \u201ca serious threat to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His call echoes that of senators Imee Marcos<\/a>, Risa Hontiveros<\/a> and Sherwin Gatchalian<\/strong>. Barbers noted that he had questioned the activities of the offshore gambling operators in 2017 and said that the situation has since worsened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Philippines News Agency,\u00a0Barbers<\/strong>\u00a0questioned the (PAGCOR\u2019s move to rename POGOs saying: \u201cNo change of name can ever erase its legacy of crimes. POGO by any other name stinks just the same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A security expert had described operators as “Trojan horses” that China might use to launch surprise attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":777008064,"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's Chairman and CEO, Alejandro H. Tengco, has refuted claims that licensed offshore gambling operators pose a national security threat near Philippine military installations, asserting that any such operations are illegal and 255 POGO licenses were revoked in 2023. This comes amidst calls from defence officials and lawmakers, including Robert Ace Barbers, for a ban on these operators, who are described as potential \"Trojan horses\" for China, despite PAGCOR highlighting their PHP5bn contribution to government revenue.","focusai_entities":"Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Alejandro H. Tengco, Gilberto Teodoro Jr, Robert Ace Barbers, Imee Marcos, Risa Hontiveros, Sherwin Gatchalian, China, House Committee on Dangerous Drugs","focusai_location":"Philippines, Surigao del Norte","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"PAGCOR's Revenue Impact?","query":"How would a comprehensive ban on all offshore gaming operators impact PAGCOR's gross revenue and the Philippine government's fiscal position, considering the PHP5bn contribution cited?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution?","query":"What specific amendments or new governance frameworks is PAGCOR considering to address national security concerns while maintaining the economic contributions of legitimate internet gaming licensees?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[405,15789],"class_list":["post-777016431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pagcor","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016431","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=777016431"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777016461,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016431\/revisions\/777016461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777008064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777016431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777016431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777016431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Another lawmaker joins call for ban on offshore gaming companies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n