An online gambling website in the Philippines that targets Chinese gamblers. Photo: Tory Ho

A Chinese crime wave hits Duterte’s Philippines as Pogos grow unchecked

An upswing in licences for offshore gaming firms has seen the Philippines become a ‘haven for Chinese criminals and criminal syndicates’
With 67 gambling-related kidnappings since 2017, why is the Duterte administration having trouble cracking down on the situation?

Topic | China-Philippines relations

Alan Robles

Published: 8:30am, 27 Dec, 2019

Updated: 9:30pm, 27 Dec, 2019

An online gambling website in the Philippines that targets Chinese gamblers. Photo: Tory Ho

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Alan Robles

Alan Robles has been a journalist for more than 30 years and has written for the SCMP since 2002. A freelance foreign correspondent specialising in politics, development, foreign affairs, science, environment and IT, he has a humour column at abs-cbnnews.com and runs the political satire site hotmanila.ph. He lectured for 12 years on digital media at the Internationales Institut fuer Journalismus in Berlin.