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路透社香港丶马尼拉5月8日电：菲中联合打击非法菠菜，是中国为遏制非法资本外流的广泛行动的一部分，同时菲律宾还承诺，将把不法经营者从本国蓬勃发展的菠菜业中清除出来。
在中国国家主席与菲律宾总统杜特地关系回暖之际，将联合取缔非法菠菜。杜特地总统已把非法菠菜列为其全面打击犯罪战争的第三位，仅排在反毒和反贪污腐败之后。
中国公安部表示，在首次联合演习中，菲中政府于4月开展了取缔跨国非法网络菠菜的活动，关闭了4个非法网站，逮捕了99人和冻结了1000多个银行账户。
菲律宾国调局网络犯罪部总监马蒂尼•克鲁兹（Martini Cruz）表示，当局正准备于五月进一步进行突击行动，目标是在菲律宾且针对中国赌客的网络菠菜和网络欺诈行为。
克鲁兹说：“为了打击这些非法菠菜经营者，中国警方已经前来拜访我们。同时目标还有那些把我们国家当成避难所的中国逃犯。”
到目前为止，取缔行动没有针对代理投注，因为这在菲律宾的持牌赌场是允许的，并且对贵宾厅收入的繁荣做出了贡献。去年本国赌场的总收入高达近30亿美元。
赌场外的赌客通过直播或在线平台向代理人发出指示，这允许人们匿名赌博且使玩家躲避他们本国当局的注意。
业内高管表示，加大监管力度会影响在菲律宾的利润丰厚的代理业务，特别是日本老虎机大亨冈野和生（Kazuo Okada）在马尼拉新建的24亿美元新赌场将于7月正式开业。
新加坡和澳门是世界最大的赌博中心，但却禁止代理投注，而在菲律宾是法律灰色地带，官员们在讨论这个问题时往往都非常谨慎。
中国法律禁止公民参与网络赌博和在家赌博。自3月以来，公安部多次发表声明称，跨国网络菠菜不利于国家经济安全丶形象和稳定。
然而，菲律宾的代理投注正在迅猛的增长。中国最大的赌场中介Suncity于四月表示，80%的业务来自代理投注，20%则是客户前往赌场进行实体赌博。
澳门IGAMIX管理咨询公司的管理合伙人本•李（Ben Lee，译音）表示，中国于今年下发的最新指示是明确的警告信号。
他说：“中国特别警告称，他们会再次打击境外赌场，所有人都要注意，特别是那些网络菠菜运营商。”
他说：“中国公民应该遵守国家的法律法规，对于在海外开展的非法菠菜网站将开展强有力的抓捕行动”
路透社英文原文链接，英文好的菲友可以看看：http://cn.reuters.com/article/ph ... bling-idCNL4N1I62NA
英文原文：
May 8 China and the Philippines have joined forces to tackle illegal gambling, part of Beijing's broader campaign to curb illicit capital outflows and a pledge by Manila to weed out unscrupulous operators from the country's booming gaming industry.
The coordinated crackdown comes amid warming ties between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte, who has made illegal gambling the third front in his all-out war on crime, after drugs and corruption.
In their first joint exercise, Philippine and Chinese authorities cracked a transnational cyber gambling operation in April, shutting four illegal websites run out of the Philippines, arresting 99 people and freezing more than 1,000 bank accounts, China's Public Security Bureau said.
Martini Cruz, chief of the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation's cyber-crime division, told Reuters authorities were preparing further raids in May targeting illegal betting and online fraud originating in the Philippines and targeted at Chinese gamblers. "We have been visited by Chinese police to crack down on these illegal gambling operators. They are also targeting possible fugitives who have made our country a sanctuary," Cruz said.
So far, the crackdown has not targeted proxy betting, which is permitted in licensed casinos in the Philippines and has contributed to a boom in VIP revenues. Casinos in the country raked in nearly $3 billion in overall revenue last year.
The practice, in which a gambler outside the casino gives instructions to an agent via a live stream or online platform, allows people to bet anonymously and can allow players to escape the attention of authorities in their home countries.
Industry executives have said increased scrutiny could impact the lucrative proxy business in the Philippines particularly if it continues to ramp up ahead of the official opening of Japanese slot machine tycoon Kazuo Okada’s new $2.4 billion casino in the capital Manila in July.
PROXY GAMBLING
While proxy gambling is banned in Singapore and in Macau, the world's largest gambling hub, it operates in a legal grey area in the Philippines and officials tend to tread cautiously when discussing the subject.
Andrea Domingo, the head of the Philippines gaming regulator, PAGCOR, told Reuters she was not familiar with proxy betting.
"It is allowed in the casinos. I am not very conversant about it," she said.
Chinese law forbids citizens from gambling online and at home. The Public Security Bureau has made repeated statements since March that transnational cyber gambling is harmful to the country's economic security, image and stability.
Yet proxy betting is growing at such a pace in the Philippines that Suncity, the top junket operator bringing in high rollers from China, told Reuters in April that 80 percent of its business comes from proxy gambling and 20 percent from customers traveling to casinos for live table games.
Ben Lee, managing partner of IGAMIX Management and Consulting in Macau, said the latest directives this year from China were clear warning signs.
"China warning specifically that they would crack down again on foreign casinos should be heeded by all, especially those operating in the online space," he said.
The proxy business in the Philippines is mainly facilitated by Macau junket operators who bring high rollers into the casinos' opulent VIP parlours, either in person or via proxies. The junkets take on the risk for casinos, settling all credit and debt for the players in Macau, Hong Kong and China via their own internal banking networks.
In a VIP area in a Manila casino, Chinese and Korean nationals wearing earpieces shuffle from table to table after a series of bets, carrying rectangular white plastic trays containing gaming chips and smartphones.
A Macau-based executive whose company operates proxy gambling in the Philippines said there was little concern on the ground in Manila as the practice is licensed by PAGCOR. “To play the game in China is legal online, it is not happening in China,” he said, explaining that the casinos install video screening so punters can see the play. For now, proxy gambling continues to boost the VIP coffers in the Philippines with mega casinos Solaire and City of Dreams reporting double digit VIP volume growth in the first quarter this year. The casinos do not report proxy betting figures.
However, executives in Macau familiar with the VIP boom in the Chinese territory prior to Xi’s crackdown on corruption and tighter junket regulation cautioned against relying too strongly on the method. “Proxy betting in the Philippines is a ripe target for China,” said a senior casino executive based in Macau who was not allowed to be named due to company policy.
(Reporting by Farah Master in Hong Kong and Jerome Morales in Manila; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) |
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发表于 2017-5-9 07:27:56
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