{"id":109048,"date":"2019-07-12T11:38:46","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T18:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=109048"},"modified":"2019-07-12T17:29:27","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T00:29:27","slug":"philippines-online-gambling-to-relocate-to-hubs-to-ease-social-tensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-online-gambling-to-relocate-to-hubs-to-ease-social-tensions\/","title":{"rendered":"Burgeoning Philippines Online Gambling Industry to Be Moved Into ‘Hubs’ to Help Ease Social Tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Philippines\u2019 \u201cPOGO boom\u201d continues to know no bounds, as Bloomberg<\/em> reports two online gaming hubs are under construction around Manila that will house the tens of thousands of workers serving the Philippines online gambling industry.<\/p>\n

\"Philippine
Kevin Wong of the Oriental Group said his company is building the hubs to \u201cput everyone in one place\u201d due to simmering resentment among locals about thousands of Chinese Nationals coming to work in the Philippines online gambling industry. (Image: ABS-CBN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

POGO stands for \u201cPhilippine Offshore Gaming Operators,\u201d which began being licensed by the regime of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016.<\/p>\n

The previously unregulated market\u2019s license fees alone have become the third biggest revenue-generator for the Philippine government.<\/p>\n

While revenue figures for the industry are unavailable, the country\u2019s regulator PAGCOR said it expected to collect around $117 million in additional taxes from the industry in 2018.<\/p>\n

Filipinos are banned from playing, and so, technically, are the mainland Chinese. Licensees are nominally prohibited from targeting countries, like China, where online gambling is illegal.<\/p>\n

Living and Work Space for 25,000<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But the industry does exactly that, as evidenced by the estimated 100,000 Chinese workers who have come to the Philippines to live and work for the POGOs, which need native Mandarin speakers to man its customer services and acquisition teams.<\/p>\n

PAGCOR announced this week that two new gaming hubs were being built by one of its licensees, Oriental Group.<\/p>\n

\n

The hubs will include offices, residencies, and one-stop shop government agencies for 25,000 workers. Operators will be incentivized to relocate to the hubs with the offer of five-year licenses if they do, rather than the standard three-year permits.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Oriental Group\u2019s general manager Kevin Wong said his company was inspired to build the developments because of the need to \u201cput everyone in one place\u201d due to \u201csocial tensions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sudden influx of Chinese workers to Manila has caused a surge in property prices and an undercurrent of resentment, based on the perception that Philippine jobs are being \u201cstolen\u201d and that Chinese workers are not paying taxes.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said that the government had agreed to a framework with the POGOs that will bring its Chinese workers in line with Philippine income-tax laws.<\/p>\n

Employees of the 55 POGOs licensed by PAGCOR must also comply with regulations on membership of the social security system and other government programs, he added.<\/p>\n

Awkward Silence <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Earlier this month, Dominguez told journalists that the Philippines and China \u201cdo not discuss\u201d online gambling, apparently the elephant in the room during diplomatic engagements between the two countries, whose relations have been much improved by Duterte\u2019s accession to power.<\/p>\n

But on Wednesday, Chinese state media attacked Macau junket giant Suncity, accusing it of operating a multibillion-dollar online gambling business that targets Chinese citizens from the Philippines and Cambodia.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time Beijing has specifically criticized a Macau-based business for online gambling, and it comes shortly after the company said it would apply for a Macau gambling concession during the 2022 relicensing process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philippines\u2019 \u201cPOGO boom\u201d continues to know no bounds, as Bloomberg reports two online gaming hubs are under construction around Manila that will house the tens of thousands of workers serving the Philippines online gambling industry. POGO stands for \u201cPhilippine Offshore Gaming Operators,\u201d which began being licensed by the regime of President Rodrigo Duterte in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":109057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33810,19,61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPhilippines Online Gambling to Relocate to Hubs to Ease \u2018Social Tensions\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"POGO workers are to have their own specials \u2018hubs,\u2019 where Philippines online gambling industry staff \u2013 mostly Chinese -- can live and work.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/philippines-online-gambling-to-relocate-to-hubs-to-ease-social-tensions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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