Illegal Underbelly of Philippines Online Gambling Sector Exposed
A worker forced to run online scams in the Philippines exposes the ugly underbelly of the recently-banned online gambling industry.
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00:00Police raided this illegal online gambling complex in Bamban, Tarloc, just three hours
00:06north of the Philippine capital, Manila, after being alerted to it by an escaped worker.
00:13But when authorities got there, they uncovered something much more sinister.
00:18There were more than 700 Filipino and foreign workers trapped here in a sophisticated Chinese-run
00:24scam operation, equipped with its own hospital and torture rooms.
00:31The findings sparked the Philippine government to completely ban the online gambling industry
00:35early this week over its links to a stew of illegal activities.
00:41Their operations have ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming, such as financial
00:46scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture,
00:51even murder.
00:53The grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws must stop.
00:58Authorities believe there could be several hundred of these sites, with over 100,000
01:02employees operating in the Philippines.
01:05The online scam organizations, mostly run by Chinese nationals, rack in billions of
01:11US dollars.
01:13Crime syndicates lure, kidnap and coerce people to work in these centers from around Southeast
01:18Asia, often on the promise of romance or high-paying jobs.
01:24They are then forced into predatory behavior online under the threat of harm or punishment.
01:31This Malaysian national, using an alias to protect his identity, was tricked into visiting
01:36the Banban complex by a friend and never allowed to leave.
01:41He said he was made to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and feared he would die
01:46there.
01:47Every month or every week, you have a quota, like you need to make a client top up or anything,
01:55that quota you didn't hit, and the reason is he will torture you, yeah, like give you
02:01pressures or anything, you need to, how do you make the sales, something like that.
02:07These offshore gambling operators, or POGOs as they're known here, flourished under former
02:12President Rodrigo Duterte after the government regulator was given the right to issue operating
02:18licenses nationwide.
02:21But in 2023, soon after the end of Duterte's term, most of them lost their license and
02:28went underground.
02:30Five operations have been raided since last year, but the Anti-Organized Crime Commission
02:35says there also needs to be a focus on public officials who allow these centers to run in
02:39plain sight.
02:41It comes after the mayor of Bamban, Alice Guo, was found to be involved in the illicit
02:45operation.
02:47She was also accused of being a Chinese national posing as a Filipino.
02:52A warrant has been issued for her arrest, but there are fears she'll evade authorities
02:56by using the hospitals inside the scam centers to change her appearance with cosmetic surgery.
03:02Heads need to roll, but by rolling we don't simply mean taking them out administratively,
03:09but bringing them to court criminally.
03:12Because once we start, if we don't start bringing people to court, if we don't start asking
03:20these people to spend time in jail, then we won't put an end to this problem.
03:26While the Philippines cracks down on the sector, the issue has brought together two unusual
03:30partners, Beijing and Manila.
03:34China issuing a rare compliment to the Philippines for outlawing these gambling sites, amid worse
03:39in territorial disputes between the two nations in the South China Sea.
03:44And as Philippine authorities race to shut down the sites under new laws, transforming
03:48some into government buildings, a Senate committee continues to investigate the online gambling
03:54industry, aiming to bring the ugly underbelly of the sector to a close.
04:01Justin Wu and Rosie Greninja for Taiwan Plus.