The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) is continuing its mandate to ensure that offshore gaming firms and other service providers abide by the country’s laws lest their operations get suspended, and after due process, are cancelled. And what is notable about this is that the gaming agency has linked up with the authorities to ensure that its licensees toe the line.
So far, Pagcor is enjoying the benefits of this tie-up with authorities, especially with the advent of technology where offshore gaming firms come up with new modes of escaping the watchful eyes of Pagcor and the authorities. One such partnership with the authorities and even local eyes involved that of CGC Technologies whose operation was subjected to an inter-agency search operation on May 4.
What Pagcor found out revealed the extent of the illegal activities that offshore gaming firms resort to. First, CGC Technologies is accredited for two of its sites in the Clark Economic Zone. But it actually has six gaming sites scattered in the six buildings that it is renting. Now, more than 1,000 computers that were being used by CGC Technologies are being subjected to forensic investigation to determine what other illegal activities the company is doing.
The suspension of CGC Technologies shows that Pagcor Chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco is determined to weed out the criminal elements in offshore gaming sites, even as the gaming agency itself tries to fulfill its mandate within the bounds of the law.
Thus, CGC was served a suspension order and later when subsequent investigations revealed other criminal activities, its license was revoked. Pagcor could have just closed the gaming facility and revoked its license immediately, but that move can be challenged in court. After all, that is what due process is all about, and it is notable of Tengco to abide by this legal doctrine.
With the suspension of CGC Technologies, which was found out employing citizens from Bhutan, China, Vietnam, Nepal and Indonesia, Tengco reiterated Pagcor’s warning for offshore gaming licensees and accredited service providers to strictly toe Pagcor’s rules and regulations, which incorporate the guidelines that authorities have drawn out for them to follow.
CGC, whose license was granted on September 2, 2021, was raided by a combined force that include the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Cybercrime Group, the Special Action Forces, the Intelligence Group of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, and the Inter-Agency Council on Anti-Trafficking. The raid followed tips that it is engaged in credit card fraud, serious illegal detention and human trafficking activities.
Aside from a watchful eye for criminal activities that offshore gaming licensees resort to, Tengco is also embracing transparency and governance rules in his stewardship of the gaming agency. Recently, he announced the forthcoming sale of the agency’s own casinos so that Pagcor can concentrate on its regulatory function and in the process earn for the government at least P80 billion when it bids out the Casino Filipino brand. That means additional dividends that Pagcor can chip into the national treasury.
In a way, Tengco will be able to concentrate on Pagcor’s regulatory function and in so doing he has already updated the agency’s junket licensing and casino operation rules and even established a regulatory framework for online poker. By ensuring a level playing field, Pagcor will be able to grow its business and contribute substantial dividends to the government. This he does while poring over the agency’s expenditures.
Tengco’s eye for detail was so focused that he even poked his nose into the rental payments that Pagcor is paying for the hotels and other establishments where Casino Filipinos are located. And he found out that some of the establishments are collecting more than the others, which runs smack into his transparency rules. We understand that what he found out surprised him and the other officials of Pagcor.
Outside of updating the regulatory manuals and peering into the finances of Pagcor, Tengco has also set his sights on contributing to the country’s tourism push with a photo contest that will showcase the best places that local and foreign tourists can visit. The contest has a great theme and it will allow budding photographers to submit photos of hitherto unknown places that tourists are enticed to visit.