CRIME | STOLEN MONEY ALLEGEDLY ‘LAUNDERED’ IN PHILIPPINE CASINOS

MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2016


The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), the country’s gaming regulator, has announced the preliminary findings of its inquiry into alleged money laundering, according to media reports.
The story begins in Bangladesh, a country of about 170 million people that’s recently found itself with record foreign reserves thanks to a low wage-fueled export boom and inward remittances. Some of those reserves were held in an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith last week accused the Fed of “irregularities” that led to the unauthorized transfer of USD100 million from the account. The Bangladesh central bank said the funds had been stolen by hackers and that some had been traced to the Philippines.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted an unknown PAGCOR official as saying that the inquiry revealed that “USD46 million of a reported USD81 million in stolen Bangladeshi funds that entered the Philippines found its way into the local casino industry. The rest of the funds never entered the local casino system. So, we don’t know where those funds went.”
Philippine authorities believe that the USD46 million that entered the gaming system was split into two different groups, including a USD26 million tranche that entered the Solaire Resort and Casino, an integrated resort owned by Bloomberry Resorts. A second tranche of USD20 million allegedly made its way to the Eastern Hawaii Casino and Resort.
The accounts holding the laundered money have reportedly been frozen by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC). RM


http://macaudailytimes.com.mo/crime-stolen-money-allegedly-laundered-philippine-casinos.html

Abetting addiction to gambling through casino pawnshops

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Friday, January 18th, 2013

With the imminent opening of more casinos in Entertainment City, I would like to raise the issue of “responsible gambling.” Pagcor has been proclaiming its strong commitment to responsible gambling, saying it will ban gambling addicts or problem gamblers from all its premises as a way of assisting their “victimized” families.

But Pagcor has no face recognition software installed anywhere in its premises, so it is impossible for its security staff to monitor gambling addicts. In fact, it seems Pagcor is even into helping gamblers get deeper into debts by allowing the operation of pawn facilities inside casinos. This in my mind is definitely not an indication of Pagcor’s strong commitment to responsible gambling. Neither are the croupiers trained to spot problem gamblers. You would think a player who spends 24-36 hours nonstop in a casino, putting ever smaller bets on the table, might be worth a check as part of the responsible gambling ethos, but no, he’s not!

The croupiers are in fact incentivized to let gamblers continue playing as most Baccarat dealers automatically take the stake on a winning bet on Pairs, Tie and Super Six for their tipbox without even asking the players. To be fair, they mostly do that to Filipinos, not to foreign players who are more likely to object.

Pagcor should be required to install face recognition software in all casinos, and at the same time initiate a comprehensive program that will prevent banned players from entering casinos. Pagcor should also train its dealers to recognize problem gamblers.

As it stands, the present system mocks the families of gambling addicts and projects an image of an institution with no sense of social responsibility but so obsessed only with profits, whatever the cost!

—JAMES STRATTON

http://opinion.inquirer.net/45097/abetting-addiction-to-gambling-through-casino-pawnshops

Tell that to the Marines

Tell that to the Marines
BusinessMirror.com.ph
Teddy Locsin Jr. / Free Fire

FINALLY, the Aquino administration has justified a piece of proven corruption by the GMA administration. How fair big and fair of it.

In a US government investigation for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act—yes, “practices,” not just actions but practices, even industry practices—it was revealed, not by hearsay, but by direct evidence, that Pagcor, among other state gambling regulators, received $110,000 in payoff s from a Japanese gambling tycoon between the years 2008 and 2011, spanning both the GMA and Aquino administrations.

Malacañang immediately came to the defense—of GMA’s and its own state-gambling regulators by admitting, yes, they had received part— now it turns out all—of that huge payoff but it was standard industry practice. Sure it is standard, like bribing cops by the Mafia; that is standard, too.

There’s the problem, US law is called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: it targets industry practices. Just because a crime is habitual does not decriminalize it. It makes it worse.

To be sure, huge payoff s of government regulators is a practice; no doubt about it. It has even acquired a term of art: regulatory capture.

It is a practice of criminal syndicates. It is, therefore, corrupt by definition. That it is a practice only makes it worse. It makes the practice syndicated under the RICO act.

Receiving payoff s on a regular basis, as SOP, calls into question the integrity of Pagcor officials entering contracts with gangs that regularly pay them off.

But it is nice to know, and it belies the accusations of a vindictive P-Noy administration, that the one time we have proof of corruption in the GMA administration, the Aquino administration defends it as SOP, standard operating procedure, standard practice, par for the course, what you must expect and anticipate when dealing with crooks. And that, said Malacañang, makes it all right.

Since jueteng lords have been paying off administrations in the past does this mean that the practice is all right for this administration as it was for the previous ones? The answer must be yes because it is not possible that what is wrong with one is right for the other, and vice versa. After all, what is the difference between the GMA and Aquino administrations; there is none; the names of both administrations even begin with the letter “A.”

So why is GMA under arrest for, among other things, what this administration admits it is practicing—taking payoff s as standard crime-industry practice?

The Palace said taking payoff s is a kind of cost-cutting measure. How? Because by accepting the payoff, the government partially off sets the cost of official travels abroad. How do we know that gambling officials do not get travel allowances just the same? In fact, Pagcor officials did because the Pagcor chief said that out of the allowance he had saved, he was able to buy a Chanel bag for his wife who, however, didn’t like it. No wonder Erap thought he committed no crime because he took no money from the government, only from gambling lords. Is this happening all over again?

The Palace said that, anyway, Pagcor intends to make the same kind of payoff s to visiting gambling syndicates by giving them free of charge the most expensive accommodations in return. In short, Pagcor is adopting crime-industry practices, as well. Wonderful. Now, we don’t have a government; we have a syndicate.

And is there really no money involved, just room and board? In the favorite words of Ferdinand Marcos, “Oh, c’mon.” Tell that to the Marines.