It’s the government’s responsibility to take them down, especially since their operations are no longer within the bounds of the law. In fact, they’ve been called scam hubs, using gambling casinos as a front for their true intentions.
So, goodbye, POGO hubs, and thank you for the few years you stayed. It’s time to move on.
I hope new casinos will come in, similar to POGO operations that cater to Chinese players, because we can’t deny that the government earned billions of pesos from these operations. If only they had been effectively regulated, there wouldn’t have been such major issues.
The problem is, with high corruption, starting with the Bureau of Immigration. POGO employees were even allowed to work without proper visas because companies were bribing officials. It’s like the Philippine government wasn’t doing its job properly, which is why things ended up this way.
I guess it all starts with cleaning up the system first. Without addressing corruption, similar operations will just face the same problems.
Unfortunately in countries in which corruption is high this is impossible, because as soon as the regulation is passed, it is not up to those same people to supervise it is implemented appropriately, so it is very easy for corrupt business owners to bribe the police officers so they look the other way as they break the law, however making illegal those operations is not the way to go either, as in that case criminals will be in charge of those operations and they will not pay any taxes to the government.