President Rodrigo Duterte said Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations will continue despite an appeal by Chinese President Xi Jinping to stop online gambling in the country.
“Out of courtesy, I will listen to you [Xi] but I decide. And I decide that we need it because a lot of Filipinos will lose jobs if we shut down POGO operations. Anyway, these are government-controlled,” Duterte said in a press briefing Wednesday evening.
“If we only have enough jobs for our people, we do not need this stupid thing—gambling—but at this time, there is nothing I can do. A lot of Filipinos are hungry and need jobs,” he said.
The President, however, issued a stern warning to POGO operators not to be remiss in remitting proper taxes.
“Do not fool me. Do not fuck with me. If you do not remit, even just once, you better close down and we will talk,” he said.
“I will go to your house and we will talk. I don’t care whoever is the gambling lord involved. I will tell you, ‘You son of a bitch I already told you not to fool the government,’” Duterte added.
On Aug. 21, Beijing asked Manila to ban all forms of online gambling as it lauded the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corporation’s decision to suspend new applications for POGO amid concerns that Chinese workers in the country do not have valid work permits.
“We hope the Philippines will go further and ban all online gambling,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said.
Online gambling employs close to 130,000 Chinese nationals in the Philippines.
During their bilateral meeting in Beijing last week, Xi told Duterte that gambling is illegal in China, and that most POGO players are Chinese nationals who may be laundering money.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue has collected about P200 million in taxes from foreigners working for POGOs.
The Finance department, however, previously said the government lost about P24 billion a year for every 100,000 POGO workers that do not pay taxes.
Pagcor records showed it has 58 accredited POGO operators.