THE Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) yesterday said 10 Chinese nationals and 26 Filipinos were arrested in two operations targeting illegal gaming activities and online scams in Laguna and Parañaque City.
The first operation in Biñan, Laguna was conducted last May 1 and resulted in the arrest of 16 people who were running an illegal online raffle on the social media platform Facebook.
The suspects, which run the FB page “Lucky Dream 4,” were caught in their office located inside a subdivision while livestreaming their 50th raffle event.
Yesterday, another group of suspects that included 10 Chinese nationals were arrested inside a house in Multinational Village, Parañaque for violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, Alien Registration Act and Cybercrime Prevention Act.
PAGCOR senior vice president for security cluster Raul Villanueva said Lucky Dream 4, which has 111,000 followers on Facebook, was conducting live online raffles that offered second-hand modified motorcycles as prizes.
Villanueva said that in one raffle event, the group can sell an average of 40,000 to 50,000 tickets, with each ticket costing P40.
“They have amassed over P8 million from the time they started this illegal online operation because in one draw, they can sell as many as 50,000 tickets,” he said.
“The Lucky Dream 4 group is obviously engaged in an illegal online gaming activity. They need to secure a license from PAGCOR if they want to operate an online gaming platform,” he added.
In the Parañaque raid, Villanueva said authorities arrested seven male and three female Chinese nationals believed to have been part of a group that managed to escape from an earlier raid on a large gaming compound in Bamban, Tarlac last March.
Nine Filipino female workers were also rescued, while one Filipino male serving as a bodyguard was arrested for possession of an undocumented .45 caliber pistol.
The raiders also confiscated around 75 mobile phones, 30 desktop computers, 50 laptops, assorted credit cards, two cars and one motorcycle along with assorted Chinese government documents.
Police said the Chinese suspects were engaged in scamming activities, such as love and cryptocurrency scams similar to the illegal activities in the Bamban, Tarlac.
