Philippines Fight Against Illegal Gaming and Online Scams
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) reported that authorities have made two successful raids aimed at prevention of illegal gaming and online scams. Given the results of the raids, gaming in the Philippines is safer now.
The outcome of two separate operations that took place in Laguna and Parañaque City is the arrest of 10 Chinese and 26 Filipinos. One of them prevented illegal gaming, while the other one targeted online scammers.
ILLEGAL ONLINE RAFFLE
The first operation took place on May 1st in Biñan, Laguna. It was successful, and 16 people were arrested for the organization of illegal online raffle on Facebook. This raid was conducted by the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG) and the PAGCOR security group.
The illegal raffle was held on the Lucky Dream 4 Facebook page. The suspects were caught in their office while they were streaming the 50th event.
In total, the group managed to scam thousands of people and amassed over Php8 million by selling raffle tickets. Participants were offered a chance to win second-hand motorcycles.
As the group have not applied for the gambling license, and it was not issued by PAGCOR, it is considered to be illegal online gaming.
ILLEGAL GAMING
On the same day, in Parañaque, another operation took place. It resulted in the arrest of 10 Chinese nationals. They are accused of the violation of the Anti Trafficking in Persons Act, Alien Registration Act, and Cybercrime Prevention Act. That was a joint operation of the CIDG-NCR and PAGCOR.
The group also recruited 9 Filipino women and one Filipino man who served as bodyguard. All of them are also arrested. 75 mobile phones, 30 desktop computers, 50 laptops were among the confiscated objects. Furthermore, 2 vaults were found in the location where suspects were arrested. Those arrested were engaged in cryptocurrency scams among other things.
Those arrests are the result of the closer collaboration of the state gaming agency and law enforcement agencies. PAGCOR Chairman and CEO Alejandro H. Tengco said that the agency received information about illegal gaming activities and scam online, and it was their duty to react and protect the public, especially minors and young people from illegal online gambling.
At the same time, the former employee of OnAir Entertainment accuses the company of spying on Playtech. As a result of those actions, the company might benefit from the gained information and use it for its own strategic goals.
