After Jiuding Group announced its withdrawal from the Philippine market following the revocation of its license by the Philippine government for collecting ransom in the Guo Congyuan kidnapping case, another Chinese-funded gambling intermediary, "White Horse Club," also quietly shut down its operations recently.
Members of White Horse Club complained on social media that the platform disappeared suddenly without any announcement. Not only were they unable to withdraw normally, but their account balances were also forcibly converted into game points and transferred to a third-party platform, BM, and could only be withdrawn after a complicated process, causing strong dissatisfaction among users.
A netizen angrily wrote in a post: "I just withdrew money from Jiuding yesterday, and today I heard that White Horse is gone? There was no notification, and the customer service even said 'Boss, all Manila offline operations are temporarily suspended'." A screenshot of a suspected customer service conversation also shows that White Horse Club is currently guiding users to contact the BM platform to convert their balances into USDT.
In contrast, Jiuding Group at least announced detailed customer transition arrangements when it announced its withdrawal from the Philippines. Its statement said that all VIP room operations in the Philippines would cease immediately, and customers could withdraw without any fees at any Jiuding VIP area before May 9; high-value customers must make an appointment in advance to ensure the safety of their funds. Jiuding emphasized that its international operations outside the country would continue.
According to insiders from the Philippine gaming regulatory body PAGCOR, several large casinos in the Philippines are accelerating the severance of ties with the implicated intermediaries, including Solaire Resort, Okada Manila, and Resorts World Bayshore, the latter of which terminated the operations of White Horse Club in its venue in March this year.
The Philippine police previously pointed out that Jiuding and White Horse Club were involved in a complex cross-border money laundering network in the Guo Congyuan kidnapping and ransom case. 200 million pesos in ransom flowed into multiple e-wallet accounts through these two intermediaries, most of which were registered under false identities, and were quickly converted into cryptocurrencies, making tracking and recovery extremely difficult. To date, although authorities have successfully frozen about 4.4 million pesos in overseas accounts, most of the ransom has "disappeared on the chain."
Philippine Congressman Robert Ace S. Barbers stated that this case is not just about kidnapping or ransom, but a criminal shadow economy that has infiltrated the national financial system. He warned that gambling intermediaries and offshore gaming operators (POGOs) are being used by organized crime groups as channels for money laundering, kidnapping, and even espionage activities.
"This is a highly dangerous hybrid, threatening the integrity of the national security and financial system," Barbers said. "If we do not quickly legislate reforms, strengthen law enforcement and regulation, the Philippines will become a haven for transnational crime." He called on Congress, law enforcement, and financial regulatory agencies to join forces in response, emphasizing: "This is a battle we cannot afford to lose."
