The State Department also noted that the junket industry, which lends money to high-rollers to gamble at the casinos, was still exempt from the Act, making it easy for wealthy criminals to circumvent checks and balances. Non-cash transactions are also excluded from AML reporting.<\/p>\n
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The report highlighted the prominent culture of proxy betting, in which a gambler or gamblers are able to give instructions, usually online, to an individual inside a live casino to place bets on their behalf on games like baccarat in real-time. Customers can open accounts, deposit money, and settle at proxy betting websites.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
While gambling in casinos on behalf of a third-party is usually illegal in the US and Europe for AML reasons, and has recently been banned in Macau, Philippine operator-regulator PAGCOR actively nurtures and licenses proxy betting companies.<\/p>\n
The State Department also expressed concern about PAGCOR\u2019S dual role of operator-regulator, which it said raises conflict-of-interest issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Philippines has tightened anti-money laundering (AML) controls at its casinos, but the gaming sector is still guilty of \u201congoing deficiencies,\u201d according to the recent US State Department\u2019s Narcotics Control Strategy Report. These include the liberal acceptance of proxy betting and the sector’s high transaction reporting threshold of $100,000. The annual State Department report is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":75167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,18,13592],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
US State Department Accuses Philippine Casino Sector of Ongoing AML Deficiencies<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n