China stated that the Philippines should stop all forms of online gambling, to support its crackdown on cross-border gambling, which as said foreign criminals had used to embezzle funds and illegally recruit workers, causing an illegal outflow of money.
“We hope the Philippines will go further and ban all online gambling. We hope it will further strengthen law enforcement with China and jointly tackle criminal activities including online gambling and cyber fraud,” “This will help create an enabling environment for the development of bilateral relations and peace and stability in the region,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said on a press conference.
“We will have to ask the president on his policy on this,” said the Philippines presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo.
It is claimed that the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) employs 100,000 workers, most of whom are from China. It’s believed that this is done to help accommodate Chinese punters.
Earlier this month, the Chinese Embassy in Manila said that many of the Chinese citizens are working illegally in POGO. This is subjected to what media described as “modern slavery” due to severe limitation of their personal freedom.
