Philippines to study economic impact of halting online gambling

MANILA, Aug 27 (Reuters) - The Philippines' anti-money
laundering body is studying the scope of the country's online
gambling industry to determine the impact on the economy if it
stopped operating, its chairman said on Tuesday.
Benjamin Diokno, who is governor of Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas (BSP) and head of the Anti-Money Laundering Council,
has ordered the agency and the central bank's financial
stability team to "put some sense to this online gambling".
"What if all of a sudden they decide to pack up and leave?
What will be the impact of that on the property sector, also the
food industry, the restaurants? This is part of my job as BSP
governor," Diokno told an economic forum on Tuesday.
Online gambling companies, known as Philippine offshore
gambling operators (POGOs), are a boon for the local economy,
drawing many visitors from China who work in them, fuelling
property demand and retail spending. The POGOs, which bar Filipinos from playing, contribute to
national coffers through license fees.
The industry is opaque and its scale hard to measure.
Officially, there are 60 POGOs, but critics say that hugely
understates the number.
China has urged the Philippines to ban online gaming to
support its crackdown on cross-border gambling, which it said
foreign criminals had used to embezzle and launder funds as well
as illegally recruit workers. When Diokno was asked if he thinks online gambling firms
were being used as money laundering conduits, he replied "not
necessarily".
The Philippine gaming regulator has stopped issuing licenses
to online gambling firms, and lawmakers and some ministers have
called for tighter controls on Chinese visitors, saying many are
illegal workers whose presence raises security concerns.
Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia told Tuesday's
forum the government should probably regulate where POGOs set up
shop because there is "over-building of offices and
condominiums" in and around the capital.

($1 = 52.4500 Philippine pesos)