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The Philippine justice minister has warned East Timorese President José Ramos-Horta of the dangers surrounding Philippine foreign-facing online gambling operators (POGOs) who might seek to relocate to East Timor.
Secretary of justice Jesus Crispin Remulla and top Philippine justice officials met Ramos-Horta in Dili during a state visit, according to a department statement on Wednesday (October 2).
The problem of migrating POGO interests top-lined the meeting and was included in a personal message from Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who announced a ban on POGOs in July, it said.
The Philippine government told Ramos-Horta and East Timorese officials of “reports indicating Timor-Leste as one of the possible destinations where POGO operations could transfer”, it said.
“Given the shared Catholic heritage and values of both the Philippines and Timor-Leste, the Philippine government deemed it essential to inform Timor-Leste of the potential socio-economic and security challenges posed by allowing POGOs to operate within its borders,” the statement said.
Secretary Remulla detailed instances of “crime, regulatory evasion, and potential threats to public safety” that the Philippines has struggled to contain for years, it said.
“The visit served as an important channel to encourage Timor-Leste to critically examine the broader implications of welcoming POGOs and how these activities might affect its domestic affairs,” it added.
The warning from the Philippine government potentially complicates the development of a foreign-facing online gambling hub rising out of East Timor, despite Ramos-Horta’s stated support for the initiative.
Closer communication between Manila and Dili on POGOs and other crime-adjacent subjects could lead to transfer of intelligence on POGO operations, their beneficial owners, payments channels, police investigations or other sensitive material that East Timor would otherwise struggle to obtain.
The Virtual Gaming Association of Timor-Leste (VGA), an “independent administrative body” that promotes the creation of foreign-facing operations and includes foreign legal experts, says on its single-page website that it hoped to see B2B and B2C licences issued in the third quarter of 2024. But no announcements have been made.
East Timor is one potential destination for POGO licensees who opt to remain in the regulated space in Asia, with Vanuatu re-emerging in recent months as an alternative and aggressive regulatory player looking for business from a highly disrupted industry.
Remulla’s attack on the POGO segment during a state visit has been followed by more destabilising incidents in the Philippines, with another POGO licensee purportedly linked to the latest raid on a cyber-scamming operation in Manila’s Pasay City.
Law enforcement and immigration officials conducted the raid on the romance scam centre allegedly controlled by POGO licensee 3D Analyzer Information Technologies in office space near the Senate building and the World Trade Center on Thursday, detaining 190 Chinese nationals, two Taiwanese and 62 Filipinos.
Gilbert Cruz, undersecretary of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission, said the operation was much smaller than the two operations whose discovery earlier this year helped to trigger Marcos’ POGO ban, and that there was no evidence of torture or prostitution on site.
Meanwhile, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian alleged on Saturday that Filipinos who formerly worked for POGO licensees have created new companies to continue defrauding customers and expand scamming activities.
