Quote from: Fortify on Today at 09:58:05 PM

Quote from: Maslate on December 05, 2024, 04:55:36 PM

This big gambling hub ( Island Cove POGO hub ) has officially signed off.

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/12/03/2404599/20000-pogo-workers-expected-leave-philippine-deadline

Quote

MANILA, Philippines — With barely a month to go before the deadline on Dec. 31, some 20,000 foreign Philippine offshore gaming operation (POGO) workers are expected to leave the country, according to the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

you can see more pictures of the close gambling hub.

This reminds me of using a sledgehammer to crack a peanut shell - they blame lots of other illegal activity on these gaming operations and instead of actually policing those things they take down these so-called "POGOs" instead. It actually seems like a pretty lucrative industry really, if they stepped in and enforced the existing laws rather than completely shutting everything down. This is a rather poor country and such services can provide very legitimate support functions to the industry, so they're losing a rather helpful source of revenue - it is rather short sighted, but maybe a politician decided to get some good publicity for themselves by targeting a sector that struggles to defend themselves in the media.

It's a billion dollar business, so yeah, it's very lucrative that's why the legal ones have been running in the Philippines for years or at least from what I understand since the pandemic as it could be a big source of tax from the government.

However, it turns out that there are more illegal POGO hubs that is well equipped and hidden from the eyes of the public as they have been put in province and places are well secured. And with that, there are many politicians that might have protected it and earn a lot of money. But the good thing is that the Philippine government is going to shut it down for good.