POGO

[craftbeerlover]

13 minutes ago, Lee said:

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy said that they “firmly oppose any baseless accusation and smearing against China in connection with POGO.” 

of course they do.   Pogo was legalized during the last administration, during a time the previous administration was doing 'everything' it could to cuddle up and kowtow to the Chinese.  During that time chinese 'visiting' the philippines almost tripled, and POGO was everywhere, building little cities all over the Philippines. Also during this time, chinese incursion on Philippines territory not only increased, there was little being done to stop it, some would say the doors were left open.   Conclusions to be drawn are of course opinion...

[scott h]

7 minutes ago, craftbeerlover said:

During that time chinese 'visiting' the philippines almost tripled

That is very true. And it just wasn't POGO employees arriving either. The Government wants the tourist dollars also, and not just the "Boracay" tourists, they want the gambling tourists. 

I live near the casinos and visit them quite often. Pre-pandemic Okada was literally flooded with rich Chinese "whales" I would see bets of 50k peso on the Pai Gow all the time. There were even rumors of private gaming rooms for "special" customers. There are new condo buildings all around the casinos and the Chinese were buying them up like crazy.

Post pandemic however I see very few Chinese. I keep asking the dealers there, have the Chinese started to return? "Not yet sir" is usually the sad reply.

[craftbeerlover]

6 minutes ago, scott h said:

he Government wants the tourist dollars also, and not just the "Boracay" tourists, they want the gambling tourists

absolutely, that is also part of the equation, but one cannot ignore the nefarious side of the equation as well, to include organized crime and sleeper cells. 

[Jack Peterson]

1 minute ago, craftbeerlover said:

sleeper cells. 

 That  is what I have become with all this  something yet again will never end because of Greed 

[craftbeerlover]

49 minutes ago, Jack Peterson said:

because of Greed 

Greed and power...yup.   The organized crime is bad enough, but the sleeper cells (not my words, these are words from Senators based on intel briefings), really turns this into something potentially very very bad