China is taking illegal online gambling sites emanating from the Philippines extremely seriously.
Online casinos have become popular across the world, nowhere more than in the Philippines, where there are a very large number of top online casinos situated within the country. The Philippines runs a state owned licensing agency for running casinos. All controls are in hands of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation or PAGCOR. Yes, Sabong betting is legal and widespread across the Philippines. There are betting terminals and legal bookies at the cockpits that players can place their bets. Running an online casino in the Philippines is illegal without authorization from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation. Five Korean nationals found that out the hard way after they were. Section 3 of this order is the classification of online gambling and where they state it is legal for Filipino residents to participate in regulated offshore sites but illegal for domestic operators to offer online gambling to Filipino residents. Signed into law February 2 nd, 2007. Republic Act 10927.
How seriously? The Chinese embassy in the nearby country issued a formal statement, and it's expected to come up in a meeting this month between the country's presidents.
It's an interesting pushback on illegal gambling involving the highest levels of government.
Online gambling in China, at a glance
There is no shortage of gray or black market operators that do or attempt to serve China. Despite the country's aggressive stance toward censoring everything, including the internet, it's obviously still possible to gamble online in the world's most populous country.
One particular segment of the online gambling market has attracted the ire of China: sites operating out of the Philippines. That's partially because China considers online gambling sites that operate outside of the country to be illegal.
Online Casino Philippines Legal Fees
A company set up specifically to serve the Chinese market — the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. — is what China is taking issue with proximately, however.
More from the Chinese embassy:
According to the Chinese laws and regulations, any form of gambling by Chinese citizens, including online-gambling, gambling overseas, opening casinos overseas to attract citizens of China as primary customers, is illegal. The casinos and offshore gaming operators (POGOs) and other forms of gambling entities in the Philippine target Chinese citizens as their primary customers.
And:
Second, the fact that a large number of Chinese citizens are lured into illegal gambling has resulted in an increase of crimes and social problems in China. In particular, some gambling crimes and telecom frauds are closely connected, which has caused huge losses to the victims and their families.
More than just illegal gambling
But it's more than that. If it were just illegal gambling sites operating in China, it probably wouldn't have escalated to an international incident. A big part of the problem, as China sees it, is that Chinese nationals are largely the people working for these sites.
A large number of Chinese citizens have been illegally recruited and hired in the Philippine gambling industry. In many cases, the employers of Philippine casinos, POGOs and other forms of gambling entities do not apply necessary legal work permits for their Chinese employees. Some Chinese citizens are even lured into and cheated to work illegally with only tourist visas.
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More from the Financial Times on the issue here.
Anyway, suffice it to say, China is not happy that the Philippines is both promoting online gambling in China while simultaneously using Chinese citizens to make it happen. They are also being used to operate online casinos in other countries; here's an example in Vietnam.
Presidents of China, Philippines getting involved
The situation will likely get to the heads of state for both countries, according to a recent report:
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Saturday (Aug. 10) expressed confidence China's concerns over online casinos in the Philippines catering to Chinese gamblers, which Beijing had declared as illegal, would be resolved by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet later this month.
That would likely be the highest level at which online gambling has been discussed in just about any country.
Would this ever happen in the US?
The problem of illegal online gambling is hardly unique to China. Dozens if not hundreds of offshore gambling companies serve the US despite the fact that federal and state laws don't allow it (unless regulated, like in New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania).
The likelihood of this reaching the highest diplomatic levels in the US is slim, although the issue has been simmering as a trade dispute with at least one Caribbean nation for years.
The most likely place for pressure to come from would be from law enforcement, specifically the Department of Justice. The infamous Black Friday of 2011, when the DOJ seized the domains of some major online poker companies, is the last time there's been major action on the online gambling front in the US.
With the rise of legal sports betting here, there's at least more attention being paid to the issue of offshore gambling sites serving the country. But it's still not close to getting the kind of attention that it is in China right now.
We have created this section of our guide specifically to offer access to our library of informational articles that have to do with legal online casino gambling in the Philippines. Multiple article topics will be included, along with opinion pieces, feature profiles, human interest stories, and we wouldn't be surprised at all to see the occasional humorous piece to lighten the load.
As we grow our article archive into a glorious online library - it is our intention that this space on our site will evolve into a valuable resource to find supplemental information that compliments our website through up to date, accurate, and intriguing in-depth articles relevant to the online casino market in the Philippines.
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