SIX Koreans and 14 Filipinos were arrested during a raid of a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) hub inside the Heritage Hotel in Pasay City last Monday afternoon.
Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) ex-ecutive director Gilbert Cruz said the Koreans were behind the operation of the POGO while the Filipinos were employees.
Operatives from PAOCC, PNP Criminal Investigation and De-tection Group, and the Bureau of Immigration raided the POGO hub at 5:20 p.m. after learning about the illegal activity at the four-star hotel.
Seized during the operation were computers and gadgets alleg-edly used in the operation of the POGO hub.
Cruz said they are applying for a warrant to examine computer data to determine the extent of the operation of the hub.
Cruz said they saw on the computer monitors the “money trans-actions” of the hub.
“But we need to secure a warrant to examine computer data from the court to determine the whole story,” said Cruz.
“They are involved in online gambling,” Cruz said of the sus-pects who he said were targeting Koreans.
As to the liability of the hotel owners, Cruz said: “We have a lot of questions we would like to ask the operators of the hotel. It’s obvious that it (POGO hub) is inside the hotel. This is not an ordinary hotel; it’s a large hotel and it’s very historical.”
Cruz wondered why the suspects were able to operate the PO-GO hub despite the security measures that were in place at the hotel.
“Are they aware of what they (suspects) were doing, did they conduct an inspection?” asked Cruz, referring to the hotel offi-cials.
PAOCC spokesman Winston Casio said PAOCC has heard the involvement of Koreans in POGO operations but this was the first time they arrested Koreans.
“We’ve been hearing about Korean POGOs for a long time but it’s the first time that we were able to get actual Koreans run-ning an offshore gaming operation,” Casio told a television in-terview.
Chinese citizens are known to be behind most of the operations of POGO hubs that were raided and shut down by authorities over the past years. PAOCC said some foreigners, including In-donesians and Malaysians, were also involved.
President Marcos Jr. ordered a ban on all POGO operations in July last year and gave POGOs until the end of 2024 to wind down and cease their operations.
Asked how many POGO hubs are still operating in the country, Cruz said: “What we’re looking at is more than 100, there are small-scale POGO operations.”
Cruz said foreigners operating these POGOs are hiding in “plain sight.”
“They are at hotels, resorts and condominiums where you can see foreigners. They are in these areas to avoid suspicion they are involved in POGO operations. You would think they are or-dinary tourists when the truth is they are POGO players,” said Cruz.
Cruz said many of these POGOs are said to be in Metro Manila. “But we have monitored (POGO operations) in northern Luzon, southern Luzon and even in the Visayas,” said Cruz.
