{"id":275242,"date":"2023-05-30T06:47:06","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T11:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=275242"},"modified":"2023-05-30T12:19:53","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T17:19:53","slug":"60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnamese Held by Philippines Illegal Casino Operator Return Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nightmare that, for some, began more than a year ago in the Philippines<\/a> has finally ended for dozens of Vietnamese nationals. They\u2019re back in their home country after having been duped into providing slave labor for illegal casinos in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

\"Police
Police conduct investigations at the Clark Sun Valley Hub in Pampanga, Philippines. After they uncovered a human trafficking ring and freed over 1,000 people, a group of Vietnamese citizens returned home. (Image: Channel News Asia<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Tuesday morning, a group of 60 Vietnamese individuals returned to their families in Vietnam. They had recently been liberated from illegal gambling establishments in the Pampanga province of the Philippines.<\/p>\n

For others, the nightmare continues. The Vietnamese embassy states that investigations in the Philippines have led to the release of more than 1,000 individuals. Among these are 437 Vietnamese. But there may be others they haven\u2019t found.<\/p>\n

Overdue Repatriation<\/h2>\n

On May 5, the Philippines military raided the establishments, breaking up the human trafficking ring and freeing the workers. The security forces rescued 1,090 people originally from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. At least 12 people await trial for their involvement in the trafficking operation.<\/p>\n

\n

The victims had been coerced into working for various operations in the Clark Sun Valley Hub in the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga, close to the capital city of Manila. They were responsible for assisting with illegal gambling<\/a> platforms, phone scams, and other crimes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, working with the consular section and Hanoi embassy in Manila, is collaborating with local authorities to visit and offer assistance to Vietnamese citizens who were trafficked to the Philippines. In some cases, the victims were brought into the Philippines illegally and don\u2019t have passports or IDs.<\/p>\n

The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ National Security Committee convened on May 25 with the aim to review the ongoing events. They are working with their counterparts on the Philippines side to ensure the speedy repatriation of all the remaining citizens.<\/p>\n

In addition, Vietnam\u2019s Consular Department and the Department of Foreign Affairs are taking leading roles in facilitating the safe passage of the victims. With the help of border protection officials, they created a roadmap to cover the logistics of their return to Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Ties to POGOs<\/h2>\n

At the center of the crimes are several companies, including Sun Valley Clark Hub Corporation, CGC Technologies, and Colorful and Leap Group. They were allegedly working together to carry out their illegal activities, and had ties to the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator<\/a> (POGO) ecosystem.<\/p>\n

CGC was a licensed POGO operator at the time of the raids. After the news broke, the Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) immediately suspended its license. It then <\/strong>canceled it on May 24.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The result is yet another call for the permanent cancellation of the POGO segment, which once thrived and delivered millions of dollars in tax revenue to the Philippines. However, the sector began losing ground when the government attempted to raise the POGO tax rate. That forced many licensed POGO businesses to move underground.<\/p>\n

The Philippines National Police, the Department of Justice, and other agencies are working together to try to prevent any further escalation. The issue has reached a boiling point within the Philippines government as well. An increasing number of lawmakers support a heavy-handed approach to end the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A nightmare that, for some, began more than a year ago in the Philippines has finally ended for dozens of Vietnamese nationals. They\u2019re back in their home country after having been duped into providing slave labor for illegal casinos in the Philippines. On Tuesday morning, a group of 60 Vietnamese individuals returned to their families […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":275241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,21],"tags":[81913,84629,13520],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVietnamese Held by Philippines Illegal Casino Operator Return Home - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"60 Vietnamese held by illegal casino operator in the Philippines return home, although many others still have to be repatriated.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vietnamese Held by Philippines Illegal Casino Operator Return Home - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"60 Vietnamese held by illegal casino operator in the Philippines return home, although many others still have to be repatriated.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-30T11:47:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-30T17:19:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Police-conduct-investigations-at-the-Clark-Sun-Valley-Hub-in-Pampanga-Philippines.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erik Gibbs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erik Gibbs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/\",\"name\":\"Vietnamese Held by Philippines Illegal Casino Operator Return Home - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Police-conduct-investigations-at-the-Clark-Sun-Valley-Hub-in-Pampanga-Philippines.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-30T11:47:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-30T17:19:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca\"},\"description\":\"60 Vietnamese held by illegal casino operator in the Philippines return home, although many others still have to be repatriated.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Police-conduct-investigations-at-the-Clark-Sun-Valley-Hub-in-Pampanga-Philippines.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Police-conduct-investigations-at-the-Clark-Sun-Valley-Hub-in-Pampanga-Philippines.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":768,\"caption\":\"Police conduct investigations at the Clark Sun Valley Hub in Pampanga, Philippines. After they uncovered a human trafficking ring and freed over 1,000 people, a group of Vietnamese citizens has returned home. (Image: Channel News Asia)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime & Scandals\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Vietnamese Held by Philippines Illegal Casino Operator Return Home\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca\",\"name\":\"Erik Gibbs\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Erik Gibbs\"},\"description\":\"Erik Gibbs covers global gaming news for Casino.org. His scope includes Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Erik has covered gaming markets in Europe and Asia for the past six years. Erik joined Casino.org in November 2021. Erik has written for numerous gambling- and a handful of industry publications has quoted casino-related media outlets over the years and. He is always excited to bring a new perspective on what's happening in the gaming space. Erik enjoys following the global gaming industry, paying particular attention to innovation and regulation. Originally from the US, Erik has spent extensive time living in various countries across the globe. He enjoys anything that has to do with the outdoors and exploration, although he readily admits that he would have no trouble spending all day fishing on a boat. He currently resides in Spain. Contact Erik at erik.gibbs@casino.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/erik-gibbs\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Vietnamese Held by Philippines Illegal Casino Operator Return Home - Casino.org","description":"60 Vietnamese held by illegal casino operator in the Philippines return home, although many others still have to be repatriated.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Vietnamese Held by Philippines Illegal Casino Operator Return Home - Casino.org","og_description":"60 Vietnamese held by illegal casino operator in the Philippines return home, although many others still have to be repatriated.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2023-05-30T11:47:06+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-30T17:19:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Police-conduct-investigations-at-the-Clark-Sun-Valley-Hub-in-Pampanga-Philippines.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Erik Gibbs","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erik Gibbs","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/","name":"Vietnamese Held by Philippines Illegal Casino Operator Return Home - Casino.org","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Police-conduct-investigations-at-the-Clark-Sun-Valley-Hub-in-Pampanga-Philippines.jpg","datePublished":"2023-05-30T11:47:06+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-30T17:19:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca"},"description":"60 Vietnamese held by illegal casino operator in the Philippines return home, although many others still have to be repatriated.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Police-conduct-investigations-at-the-Clark-Sun-Valley-Hub-in-Pampanga-Philippines.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Police-conduct-investigations-at-the-Clark-Sun-Valley-Hub-in-Pampanga-Philippines.jpg","width":1024,"height":768,"caption":"Police conduct investigations at the Clark Sun Valley Hub in Pampanga, Philippines. After they uncovered a human trafficking ring and freed over 1,000 people, a group of Vietnamese citizens has returned home. (Image: Channel News Asia)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/60-vietnamese-held-by-illegal-casino-operator-in-the-philippines-return-home\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime & Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Vietnamese Held by Philippines Illegal Casino Operator Return Home"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca","name":"Erik Gibbs","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png","caption":"Erik Gibbs"},"description":"Erik Gibbs covers global gaming news for Casino.org. His scope includes Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Erik has covered gaming markets in Europe and Asia for the past six years. Erik joined Casino.org in November 2021. Erik has written for numerous gambling- and a handful of industry publications has quoted casino-related media outlets over the years and. He is always excited to bring a new perspective on what's happening in the gaming space. Erik enjoys following the global gaming industry, paying particular attention to innovation and regulation. Originally from the US, Erik has spent extensive time living in various countries across the globe. He enjoys anything that has to do with the outdoors and exploration, although he readily admits that he would have no trouble spending all day fishing on a boat. He currently resides in Spain. Contact Erik at erik.gibbs@casino.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/erik-gibbs\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275242"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275311,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275242\/revisions\/275311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}