The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation once again strongly advises the public not to engage in any unauthorized gambling activities offered by unscrupulous individuals and groups.
PAGCOR’s issued the warning after the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group conducted a successful operation against an illegal online bingo operator recently. Said operator was just one of several illegal gambling operations, which were under surveillance and case monitoring.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started early this year, PAGCOR has received an increase in reports on illegal online gambling being promoted through social media platforms like Facebook.
To further strengthen the fight against unauthorized gambling activities, the state run -gaming regulator will ask for the assistance of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Anti-Money Laundering Council to conduct investigation on banks, remittance services, and payment solutions used as fund conduits for these illegal operations.
While illegal gambling per se is not among the predicate crimes of Money laundering, frauds and swindling are. These are based on the act of taking bets from the public by falsely representing that they have a legitimate business, when in fact, they have no such authority.
The country’s gaming regulator is likewise calling on Facebook to cooperate with PAGCOR and Philippine authorities to curtail fraudulent activities, which are promoted through their platform.