The PAOCC’s director estimates that 9,000 foreign offshore gaming workers remain in the country.
The Philippines.- Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) director and spokesperson Winston Casio has said that he expects the remaining foreign offshore gaming workers to be arrested and deported by the end of the year. During the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing over state-run PTV-4, Casio said over 1,000 offshore gaming workers who are in government custody will be deported in two to three weeks.
He said around 899 foreign nationals working in illegal offshore gaming hubs are currently detained at the PAOCC’s detention facility in Pasay City, while an estimated 200 to 300 are in the custody of the Bureau of Immigration (BI). Casio said the PAOCC is working with the BI and the Department of Justice’s Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking to streamline the deportation process.
He said: “If you add that up, from January until now, we have neutralised more than 1,000. If there are still 11,000 based on the records of the Bureau of Immigration, less 1,100, only more than 9,000 are still there. We have a whole-of-government approach. We are confident that towards the end of the year or earlier, we will be able to eliminate them all.”
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has warned that some illegal offshore gaming operators remain active but that all previously licensed operators have shut. Responding to questions from deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros during a Senate hearing, assistant vice president Jessa Fernandez said all 42 licenses and 18 authorised service providers had been cancelled and 304 operating sites closed since the ban on offshore gaming came into effect.
PAGCOR senior vice president Raul Villanueva said some operators have splintered into smaller illegal groups, setting up operations inside residential subdivisions and urban peripheries.
