Two Philippine senators accused the state gaming regulator of corruption and of failing to do its job, at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, May 30, 2023, into human trafficking at offshore gaming sites. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian and Senator Risa Hontiveros both called for the total closure of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) operations in the country1.
The hearing followed a May 4 police raid that rescued more than 1,000 human trafficking victims, described as a mix of foreign and Filipino nationals, inside the Colorful and Leap Group Company operating in the Clark Sun Valley hub. The rescued individuals said they were forced to work on fraudulent "cyber-enabled" platforms such as cryptocurrency1.
Jessa Mariz Fernandez, assistant vice president for the Offshore Gaming and Licensing Department of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), told the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality that the agency's inspectors conduct inspections twice a week at the country's two accredited POGO hubs: the Sun Valley Hub Corp. in Mabalacat, Pampanga, and the First Orient International Ventures Corp. at Island Cove in Kawit, Cavite1.
Gatchalian said PAGCOR still failed to detect the trafficking victims, who were rescued by anti-human trafficking operatives acting on a tip. He also said PAGCOR had not compelled POGO owners to comply with rules requiring the presence of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Immigration, Department of Labor and Employment and law enforcement agencies, particularly the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation, inside their hubs. He noted it had been four years, or since 2019, when the hubs were given provisional licenses, and they had yet to comply1.
"You inspect two times a week and there are only two POGO hubs in the whole Philippines. So how come your inspectors were not aware about these 1,100 plus human trafficking victims?"
The Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking confirmed during the hearing that scam hubs hide under a legal cover. Hontiveros, who chairs the panel and conducted an ocular inspection of the Colorful and Leap Group offices, said most of the victim-survivors' accounts resembled the love scam method seen in Myanmar and Cambodia that the panel had investigated earlier1.
What it means for players
The hearing concerns the offshore gaming industry that PAGCOR licenses, not domestic casinos or online betting sites aimed at Philippine residents, and no change to the rules for ordinary gamblers was announced on May 30. The allegations center on the two accredited POGO hubs and the workers inside them, who the hearing was told were trafficked and forced onto fraudulent platforms. For anyone in the Philippines weighing an offshore or online gambling offer, the hearing record describes scam operations hiding behind legal cover, which is the pattern covered in our guide to gambling scams and safety in Asia. The senators' call for total closure is a proposal, not a policy change; the current licensing position is set out in our guide to whether you can gamble in the Philippines, and the status of offshore operators in our guide to the Philippines' ban on offshore gaming.
What happens next
Both Hontiveros and Gatchalian are calling for the total closure of POGO operations in the Philippines1. No date has been reported for a vote, a committee report or any PAGCOR response to the senators' statements.
