(File photo: VCG)
Chiang Mai (People's Daily) – The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines urged Manila to punish casinos and offshore gaming firms that illegally employ Chinese. It said such operations aid crimes such as money-laundering.
“According to 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 statement said.
"The Chinese side hopes and urges relevant departments of the Philippine government to pay more attention to China's position and concerns and take concrete and effective measures to prevent and punish the Philippine casinos, offshore gaming operators and other forms of gambling entities for illegally hiring Chinese citizens and crack down on related crimes that hurt Chinese citizens," according to the statement.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp, the country's gambling regulator, refers to such firms as POGO or Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations.
The Chinese embassy blamed some unnamed "Chinese companies" and Filipinos for offshore gambling that targets those in the mainland, and for the illegal work being undertaken by thousands of its compatriots here. The embassy said offshore gaming operations in the Philippines led to increased crimes and social problems in China, and warned that it would take "actions" to prevent cross-border gambling.
"The Ministry of Public Security of China has taken many actions and will carry out more special operations aimed at preventing and combating the cross-border gambling," the embassy said.
"China will focus on investigating and cracking down on some major cases, including those of organizing gambling overseas and opening online gaming, and will destroy networks of criminal organizations involved in recruiting gamblers from China by overseas casinos and using the internet to open casinos in China," it added.
According to Philippine media, Philippine Ambassador to China Chito Sta. Romana said the embassy's call brought to the public a joint crackdown on crime by Chinese and Philippine authorities. "In a sense, what is happening now is that there had been cooperation between the 2 sides in terms of law enforcement, in terms of tracking down particular cases and criminals," he said. Philippine Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said victims of alleged crimes should file cases before Philippine authorities.
"The Chinese side hopes and urges relevant departments of the Philippine government to pay more attention to China's position and concerns and take concrete and effective measures to prevent and punish the Philippine casinos, POGOs and other forms of gambling entities for their illegal employment of Chinese citizens and crack down related crimes that hurt the Chinese citizens," the statement said.
The embassy also decried the statement of Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp vice president Jose Tria that POGOs would be transferred to "self-contained" hubs to limit Chinese workers' interactions with Filipinos. Such a set-up may "infringe on the basic legal rights of the Chinese citizens concerned," the statement said.