Philippine Senator Gatchalian disclosed that the protective umbrella of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Corporation (POGO) is actually "mid- and high-level officials" within the government.

Not long ago, Senator Gatchalian and Senator Lisa Hontiveros went to Bamban Town in Tarlac Province to inspect an online gambling park that was raided.

Gatchalian said they had a closed-door meeting with officials from the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) on Wednesday and learned that “the umbrella of online gaming companies turned out to be law enforcement agencies that self-regulate the operations of online gaming companies, as well as those related to law and order.” Persons related to the department”. He added: "Intelligence suggests these umbrellas are mid- and high-level officials because they can easily command lower-level officials."

Meanwhile, the senator disclosed that “protection fees” or bribes paid by gaming companies amount to hundreds of millions of pesos, with protection fees increasing after each raid to inspect an operation.

It is reported that officials from the Presidential Commission against Organized Crime presented the name and photo of the government’s online gambling protector during a closed-door meeting. Gatchalian said: "According to the briefing and information, the gaming companies have bribed state law enforcers, so they are not worried about whether they will be caught because they know they will not be punished in the end."

"I was shocked. These people knew how to bribe and the amounts involved were huge," he said.

The Presidential Commission Against Organized Crime highlighted that it is monitoring more than 100 additional POGOs.

Gatchalian said that it is necessary to comprehensively ban online gaming companies still operating in the country as soon as possible, especially after each raid, the government has to bear about 90 million pesos before the "rescued" gaming employees are repatriated to their country of origin. cost of. He emphasized: "Such raids and deportations are not free. They bring us crimes, but we have to spend so much money to send them back."