Online casinos and their army of Chinese workers come under scrutiny in Philippines
- The number of Chinese workers in the Philippines is believed to be much higher than the number of work permits issued
The Philippines’ tax agency is setting its sights on more than 50 companies operating online casinos catering to Chinese punters, and their thousands of Chinese workers.
The companies in question must register with the Bureau of Internal Revenue before the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation will renew their licenses, the Department of Finance said in a statement on Sunday.
The tax bureau also wants to join an inter-agency team monitoring the number of Chinese nationals working in the online gaming industry.
More than 50 companies referred to as Philippines-based offshore gaming operators, or POGOs, have set up businesses since President Rodrigo Duterte’s government began awarding licenses in 2016, triggering the migration of tens of thousands of Chinese workers.
Of the more than 115,000 permits given to foreign workers from 2015 to 2017, 51,000 were issued to Chinese nationals, a labour ministry official said in November.
More than 3 million Chinese have entered the Philippines from 2016 and many of them have applied for work permits, the labour ministry official said.
In November, Senator Joel Villanueva expressed alarm, saying the number of Chinese workers in the Philippines is much higher than the number of permits issued.