The Philippine Gaming Regulator Demands Illegal Online Gambling Investigation

The Philippine gaming regulator PAGCOR has said that it will demand the financial investigations into the remittance business and 3rd party payment solution providers of Philippine banks to punish the growing unlicensed online gaming business.

They have sent the request to Central Bank of the Philippines and Anti-Money Laundering Commission.

Fighting Illegality With Resolve

PAGCOR’s Friday statement said that…

…the Philippine National Police anti-cybercrime group has been monitoring illegal gambling activities including illegal online game operators that have been shut down.

The regulatory body has also published a public warning to the citizens of the Philippines , saying that they should not participate in any unauthorized gambling activities provided by unethical individuals and groups.

They also pointed out that there has been an increasing number of individuals promoting illegal online gambling on the social media platforms.

A Warning to Public

The PAGCOR’s statement reads:

“In order to further strengthen the fight against unauthorised gambling activities, the National Gaming Regulatory Agency will seek the assistance of the Central Bank and the Anti-Money Laundering Commission to investigate illegal operations using financial channels such as bank remittance services, funding channels and payment solutions.

Although illegal gambling is not an upstream crime of money laundering but fraud and scam, we still need to understand these acts are based on accepting bets from the public by falsely representing that they have a legitimate business, but in fact they are not authorised.”

PAGCOR has also said that in January it has signed a memorandum of understanding with AMLC to improve money laundering battle cooperation.

Source:

“PAGCOR urges Central Bank to conduct financial investigations over illegal online gambling concerns”, sigma.com, September 28th, 2020.