MGA and AGCO Enter into a New Memorandum of Understanding

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We take issue with the statements of Atty. Nicole Rose Margaret Jamilla who tried to pass the blame to PAGCOR the reasons for the criminal cases filed by the Department of the Interior and Local Government against her client, Mayor Alice Guo of Bamban, Tarlac.

PAGCOR’s regulations are clear cut. If our licensees are found violating the terms of their licenses, whether these are provisional licenses or regular licenses, they are severely fined and penalized and, in the most serious cases, the licenses are revoked.

PAGCOR has nothing to do with the issuance of local business permits and licenses. We are also not responsible for the inspection of buildings that are not under our jurisdiction. We issue licenses based on our own guidelines and the documents submitted by applicants.

In the case of the raided compound in Bamban last March 13, 2024, one of the entities doing business in the compound was Zun Yuan Technologies, Inc. which was the holder of a provisional license from PAGCOR issued only last October 19, 2023.

Zun Yuan’s registered address was the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of A1 Building inside the compound of Baofu Land Development Inc. We had people from the Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement Department assigned there to monitor their operations.

Outside of those premises, PAGCOR had no access to the rest of the 8-hectare compound and the 39 other buildings there, many of which were highly restricted and inaccessible to the public. Hence, our people could not have legally monitored activities there.

Aside from monitoring and enforcement of PAGCOR rules, the only role of PAGCOR in the raided illegal facilities in Bamban was the issuance of a provisional license to Zun Yuan Technologies, which had been revoked immediately after the March 13 raid.

For the record, it is only under the present PAGCOR administration that the real anomalies in the former Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators or POGO activities have been exposed.

It is only under the present leadership that at least ten (10) raids against POGOs have been successfully conducted, leading to discovery and exposure of criminal activities being perpetrated by some of the licensees.

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St8.io, the next-generation content aggregator, has been granted a recognition notice by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), as it continues to expand its worldwide reach.

The recognition notice, which gives the same rights as a standard MGA B2B licence, is based upon St8’s existing licence in Romania, which was granted by the Romanian National Gambling Office last year.

St8 will now be able to provide its platform within the MGA’s globally-renowned framework, marking the latest step in the aggregator’s rapid growth since launching less than two years ago.

“Receiving this approval from the MGA was a key strategic goal for St8,” said St8.io CEO Vladimir Negine. “This will enable us to provide our platform to operators in MGA-regulated markets worldwide, maintaining the highest levels of player protection along the way. Alongside the licence we received in Romania, we’re now able to support partners in even more markets. Our plan is to continue to expand our licensed footprint in 2024 and beyond.”

St8’s innovative approach to content aggregation has already earned praise from operators and game suppliers looking for a solution that replaces manual work with cutting-edge technology.

A key part of why operators and suppliers trust St8 is because of the stability and security the platform guarantees, particularly around confidential information.

The St8 platform also delivers deep integrations, meaning those operators don’t miss out on additional functionality from games studios.

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The Danish Gambling Authority has published a revised version of the Danish Gambling Authority’s Guidance on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (the Anti-Money Laundering Guidance).

The guidance is aimed at gambling operators, their employees and other relevant stakeholders. The guidance is a supplement to the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority’s Guidance on the Act on Preventive Measures against Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism.

The guidance has been circulated for consultation with a number of external stakeholders prior to publication.

Linguistic adjustments have been made throughout the Anti-Money Laundering Guidance as well as substantive changes in particular in section 3 on risk assessment, section 4 on policies, procedures and controls and section 6 on customer due diligence procedures. With the update, more examples have been added to illustrate the rules better.

The updated Anti-Money Laundering Guidance contains a version history where it is possible to familiarise yourself with the changes in the specific sections.

The consultation has resulted in the Danish Gambling Authority preparing a new guidance on the Danish Gambling Authority’s AML Inspections. The content of the Guidance on AML Inspections is not new, as it contains information that previously appeared in the Anti-Money Laundering Guidance. The Guidance on AML Inspections contain information on the Danish Gambling Authority’s inspection, including the possibilities for reaction and confidentiality. With Guidance on AML Inspections, the Danish Gambling Authority’s tasks have thus been separated from the obligations that gambling operators must fulfil under the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

The Anti-Money Laundering Guidance will be updated on an ongoing basis in line with changes to the Anti-Money Laundering Act, when new national risk assessments are published and in cases of new or changed practice.

Each update will be announced on the website, and the version number on the front page of the guidance will be adjusted so that it is visible that a new version has been released.

The Anti-Money Laundering Guidance and the Guidance on the Danish Gambling Authority’s AML Inspections are available via the menu “Businesses and Associations”, “Prevention of Money Laundering” and “Guidances”.