Philippine casinos are now required to perform stringent checks on junket operators before entering into any deals or contracts with them as part of new guidance that aims to aid land-based casinos in determining the fitness and proprietary nature of junket operators and the key people associated with them.
Guidelines Focus on Four Areas
Under the new guidance, casinos should assess the reputation, honesty, and integrity of the key individuals involved in junket operations, as well as their financial soundness, competence, and capability.
To determine a junket operator’s suitability, casinos should assess whether they’ve faced lawsuits or have been convicted for fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and other related crimes. Casinos must also ensure that the key persons involved in the running of the junket business don’t have any outstanding debt or have been the subject of bankruptcy proceedings.
Casinos also have a duty to ensure that individuals holding key positions have received adequate training for the work that they do.
New Guide Aims to Remove PH from Grey List
PAGCOR said the new guide was established to strengthen the country’s anti-money laundering (AML) and combatting the financing of terrorism (CFT) rules, which was highlighted when the French watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed the Philippines on the “grey list” in June 2021.
Jurisdictions included in the list are deemed to be at risk of financial crimes and need extra monitoring.
