Mainland China has voiced its intention to offer consular assistance to the local junket operator Jack Lam. Meanwhile, the Philippine authorities have been inspecting Lam’s gaming businesses since 2014
The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines is ready to offer consular assistance to local junket operator Jack Lam said the spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Lu Kang last week during the Ministry’s regular press briefing. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered Mr Lam be arrested.
The arrest order for Mr. Lam, the founder of local junket group Jimei Group, was based on charges of economic sabotage and bribery. However, the Philippine leader said last week that he would allow Jack Lam to enter the Philippines and to continue his business in the country if he apologised for bribing an official and paid the correct taxes, Reuters reported.
“On the condition that he lets go of the original contract ... Just pay taxes, don’t bribe anybody,” the agency quoted the President as saying to reporters.
Mr. Lam has been operating online gambling businesses at a former U.S. air force base without a license, the justice department in the Philippines indicated. No immediate comment was released by the junket operator after the Philippine President made the statement, and Mr Lam’s current location remains unknown, according to the news agency.
Looked at since 2014
On the other hand, documents obtained by Philippine news outlet The Inquirer, shows the Philippine state-owned Clark Development Corp. had been inspecting the status of an online gaming firm in Fontana Leisure Parks and Casino (FLPC) in 2014.
The 1,300 illegal Chinese workers rounded up last month were employees at the FLPC.
Clark Development Corp. was initially trying to decide whether to grant the interactive gaming license to Next Games Outsourcing Inc. (NGOI) at Fontana that was distributed by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, or to request NGOI to obtain a new permit from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), reported the news outlet.
The founder of Jimei is not registered as a stock holder of NGOI, a subsidiary of Fontana Development Corp. which is owned by Mr Lam.
The Fontana subsidiary is engaged in business process outsourcing that relates to the gaming industry, such as computer data processing and inbound and outbound contact or call centre services.
Some 11 Philippine citizens and 1,456 foreigners are employed by NGOI.
The president and chief executive officer of Clark Development Corp., Arthur Tugade, who is currently the transportation secretary of the Philippines, had already obtained a resolution in 2014 about authorising the Bureau of Immigration to “blacklist unaccounted foreign nationals of NGOI” from the Subic-Clark Alliance Development Council.
Pagcor and other authorities in the Philippines have recently shut down the casino operations of Mr. Lam in Laoag City in the country.
Moreover, the businessman’s certificate of registration and tax exemption for the 300-hectare casino has been suspended by Clark Development Corp.