# Gambling Dens Illegal in China, Built in the Philippines for Chinese Players. The Communist Party Was Furious, and Xi… > POGO (Philippine offshore gaming operators) is a business that exists because gambling is banned in China. I followed the sourced numbers: a state-run casino district, the 2016 licensing scheme, over 110,000 work permits for foreigners, Xi Jinping's 2019 remark, and what the Chinese government actually did. - Published: 2026-10-30 - URL: https://abalol.xyz/en/posts/pogo-1-china-gambling-ban/ - Language: en - Tags: philippines, pogo, gambling, china, politics - Author: Tomohiro Owada - Site: Tomo's Diary (https://abalol.xyz/llms.txt) --- POGO (Philippine offshore gaming operators) is a business that exists because gambling is banned in China. These were online casinos that served only customers abroad, and most of those customers were Chinese. In 2019, President Xi Jinping raised this business with the Philippine president. His words were more polite than I expected. ## A state-run casino district next door In Parañaque, part of Metro Manila, there is a casino district called "Entertainment City." It covers 100 hectares along Manila Bay, and each company that moved in had to invest at least US$1 billion. [Solaire](https://www.rappler.com/business/21165-philippines-mega-casino-set-to-open-next-month/) opened in March 2013, and [City of Dreams Manila](https://www.melco-resorts-philippines.com/doc/press/2015/20150503-GOEWrapUpRelease.pdf) in February 2015. The district is managed by PAGCOR (the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation). It is a state-owned company set up in 1977, with three jobs: regulating gambling, raising money for the government, and promoting tourism ([Commission on Audit report](https://www.pagcor.ph/transparency/docs/2016-COA-AAR.pdf)). The same company plays the regulator and the earner. Online gambling existed before POGO, too. Since 2003, the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) in the north has issued licenses for online gambling aimed only at foreigners. It taxed 2% of gross gaming revenue ([announcement at the time](https://www.casinocitytimes.com/news/article/asian-jurisdiction-now-offers-internet-gaming-licenses-133757)), and by 2007 it had reached [43 licenses](https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2007/07/16/3137-pacgames-awarded-philippines-license). ## Closed in China, booming as POGO In 2016, China was cracking down harder on gambling overseas. Reuters wrote that if you hit Macau, the business pops up somewhere else: Saipan, the Philippines, Cambodia, Australia. At Manila's Solaire, VIP betting rose 61% in July–September 2016, and about half of its VIP customers were Chinese ([Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/article/world/overseas-casinos-clean-up-despite-china-s-cash-curbs-idUSKBN14002S/)). In August of that same year, PAGCOR wrote the rules for POGO, and in September it approved POGO as a new type of gambling ([Inquirer](https://business.inquirer.net/277962/what-went-before)). The chairman at the time explained that unlicensed offshore gambling, employing around 80,000 people, had been running even before that. The idea was to put the unlicensed business under a license and bring it under control ([PAGCOR's magazine](https://www.pagcor.ph/insider/2019/jul-sept-2019.pdf)). The numbers then jumped. PAGCOR's chairman said POGO brought in about ₱11.9 billion in revenue from 2016 to 2018. By August 2019 there were 58 licenses and more than 130,000 employees (same [Inquirer](https://business.inquirer.net/277962/what-went-before) article). According to the Department of Labor and Employment, POGO-related workers numbered 118,239 in December 2019, and 82% of them were foreigners. Work permits for foreigners rose from 21,320 in 2018 to 111,583 in 2019 ([BusinessWorld](https://bworldonline.com/editors-picks/2019/12/25/270938/foreign-work-permits-exceed-100000-in-2019-led-by-pogos/)). Office space demand from POGO in Metro Manila was 11 times higher in 2019 than in 2016 ([BusinessWorld](https://bworldonline.com/top-stories/2019/12/10/268627/online-gaming-fuels-record-high-office-space-demand/)). ![How POGO office demand and work permits for foreigners grew](https://abalol.xyz/images/posts/pogo-1-china-gambling-ban/pogo-growth-en.png) Who were the customers? In a statement on August 8, 2019, the Chinese embassy said that many of the Philippines' brick-and-mortar casinos and online gambling companies mainly serve Chinese customers ([Xinhua](http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/2019-08/08/c_1124852392.htm)). ## Xi Jinping's government gets angry It wasn't hostile from the start. In April 2017, Chinese and Philippine authorities jointly shut down four illegal websites run from the Philippines and arrested 99 people ([Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-china-gambling-idUSKBN18402A/)). The mood changed in 2019. In July, China's public security minister ordered a special campaign called "Cut the Chain" to wipe out recruiters for overseas casinos and underground banks ([Chinese government portal](https://www.gov.cn/guowuyuan/2019-07/12/content_5408836.htm)). On August 4, the Chinese embassy in the Philippines urged Chinese nationals not to work for POGO, and called gambling-related crime "a public nuisance to the local community" ([China News Service](https://m.chinanews.com.cn/wap/detail/chs/zw/8916894.shtml)). At a meeting in Beijing on August 29, President Xi welcomed the halt on new licenses and then said it would be even more appreciated if they stopped completely. That is how the Philippine presidential palace's spokesperson described it. The reasons: gambling is illegal in China, most customers are Chinese, and crimes such as money laundering follow. The spokesperson said it was not a formal request but something implied. The finance secretary took it as just a comment ([Philstar](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/08/30/1947703/duterte-study-impact-chinas-proposal-ban-pogos-palace-says), [Inquirer](https://globalnation.inquirer.net/179531/dof-chief-china-respects-ph-sovereignty-on-pogos)). On September 4, President Duterte refused to ban POGO. In essence, he said he would not have tolerated it if jobs were not short, and that he would decide it was needed for the national interest ([Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2019/9/5/duterte-rejects-chinas-call-to-ban-philippine-online-gambling)). China moves on actions more than words. In February 2020, the Chinese embassy in the Philippines confirmed that Chinese nationals suspected of long-running fraud abroad had been barred from leaving China ([embassy](https://ph.china-embassy.gov.cn/eng/sgfyrbt/202003/t20200304_1155487.htm)). PAGCOR said that of the 70,000 Chinese working illegally at POGOs and similar operations, at least 2,000 had been sent back since January 2019 ([Inquirer](https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1234428/pagcor-2000-illegal-pogo-workers-repatriated-in-china-crackdown)). In August 2020, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism and others announced a "blacklist" of gambling-tour destinations ([Global Times](https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1198924.shtml)). ![China's government actions, 2019–2021](https://abalol.xyz/images/posts/pogo-1-china-gambling-ban/china-response-en.png) The Philippines decided to ban POGO five years after that, in July 2024 ([Philstar](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/07/22/2372104/effective-today-marcos-declares-pogo-ban-sona)). ## Polite words, a law with up to 10 years On December 26, 2020, China promulgated the 11th amendment to its Criminal Law. The promulgation order was signed by President Xi Jinping ([NPC website](http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c2/c30834/202012/t20201226_309455.html)). Since it took effect on March 1, 2021, organizing Chinese citizens to gamble abroad carries up to 5 years in prison, and 5 to 10 years in serious cases. Getting Chinese citizens to take part in overseas gambling online is covered too ([Supreme People's Procuratorate](https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/llyj/202109/t20210916_529663.shtml)). President Xi's own words, according to the palace's account, were "even more appreciated if it stops completely." The law he signed carries up to 10 years in prison. To me, that is what fury looks like when it is written politely.