{"id":777016511,"date":"2024-06-18T09:12:46","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T12:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777016511"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:02:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:02:03","slug":"archbishop-joins-calls-for-a-ban-on-offshore-gambling-operators-in-the-philippines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/archbishop-joins-calls-for-a-ban-on-offshore-gambling-operators-in-the-philippines","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop joins calls for a ban on offshore gambling operators in the Philippines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan has issued a letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.- A Catholic archbishop, <strong>Socrates Villegas <\/strong>of Lingayen-Dagupan, has joined calls to ban Chinese offshore gambling operators in the Philippines. In a pastoral letter, Villegas wrote that any benefits are outweighed by serious threats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He wrote: &#8220;The recent raids that revealed the extent of the evil at these Pogo hubs [sic], including incidences of human trafficking, torture, and money laundering, make it a moral imperative that they should no longer be granted the protection of the law and should, in fact, be outlawed.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several Philippine lawmakers are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/another-lawmaker-joins-call-for-ban-on-offshore-gaming-companies-in-the-philipines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">calling for a ban on offshore gaming companies<\/a>. A security expert has described\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-denies-presence-of-chinese-gaming-operators-near-military-camps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">operators as \u201cTrojan horses\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that could be used by China to stage \u201csurprise attacks\u201d against military installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Chinese Embassy in Manila<\/strong>\u00a0has also called on the Philippines to <a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/china-urges-the-philippines-to-ban-offshore-gaming-operators\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prohibit offshore gaming operators<\/a>. In a statement on Friday, it said nearly 3,000 Chinese nationals had been implicated in crimes such as telecom fraud related to offshore gaming operators since 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan has issued a letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":12583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Archbishop Socrates Villegas has joined calls to ban Chinese offshore gambling operators (POGOs) in the Philippines, citing severe threats including human trafficking, torture, and money laundering. This aligns with demands from Philippine lawmakers and the Chinese Embassy, which has reported thousands of Chinese nationals implicated in related crimes, raising significant regulatory and national security concerns.","focusai_entities":"Socrates Villegas, Chinese Embassy, China","focusai_location":"Philippines, Lingayen-Dagupan, Manila","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Ban Economic Impact","query":"What is the projected economic impact on the Philippine economy, including real estate and employment, if a comprehensive POGO ban is enacted, and how would this affect the government's GGR projections?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution","query":"How might the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) adapt its regulatory and licensing frameworks to address the identified compliance failures and national security concerns, potentially influencing future B2B\/B2C market entry?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,16333],"tags":[405,15789],"class_list":["post-777016511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pagcor","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016511","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=777016511"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777016537,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777016511\/revisions\/777016537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777016511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777016511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777016511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}