Chinas new casino

[bastonjock]

Just been reading the morning post and theres a story about china and its gambling crazy people

Revenues from chinese gambling have gone from 1 billion dollars to 4.1 billion dollars in 3 years

Chinese workers are flocking to manila to operate these online gambling companies ,they use remote dial in from china and have chinese groupiers place the bets on their behalf 

Its now the third largest single foreign earnee for the Philippines 

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, bastonjock said:

Its now the third largest single foreign earnee for the Philippines 

So a good thing then

[OnMyWay]

3 hours ago, hk blues said:

So a good thing then

I guess, as long as you don't have a dorm house next door with 30 workers crammed into it.

Actually, I think the whole thing will collapse.  Gambling is against the law in China.  They are tolerating this online gambling now, but could shut it down in a day if they wanted to.

[scott h]

9 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

I guess, as long as you don't have a dorm house next door with 30 workers crammed into it.

I live in the general area where all these places are. Bear with me while I explain. There are a lot of restaurants that deal with only Chinese customers. We have noticed a lot of vans lately with "Not for hire, Employees only" signs on them. I know of 3 pieces of property that have been sold to Chinese and there are apartment buildings going up, speculation is that they are to house these online workers.

What we believe is happening is that the Chinese hire and bring the workers over, the live in housing rented to them by the employers, they eat in these eateries run by the employers and are transported to and fro in vans by the employers. This is reminiscent of the "Company Store" of the early 20th century.

There was an article in the paper today about trying to get all these folks to pay income tax. Because right now, very little is trickling down to the national economy. The employee rent is going to the boss, the food cost is going to the boss, transportation is going to the boss and I bet what ever is left over is being remitted to families back in china.  

[Dave Hounddriver]

20 minutes ago, scott h said:

There was an article in the paper today about trying to get all these folks to pay income tax.

That got me searching the news.  I found an investigative report on Rappler from last month.  It is a long read but a good one if you can ignore all the advertising crap that Rappler has been putting on their news articles lately.  Too long to copy and paste so here is the link:

https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/232508-life-chinese-online-gambling-workers-manila

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, scott h said:

I live in the general area where all these places are. Bear with me while I explain. There are a lot of restaurants that deal with only Chinese customers. We have noticed a lot of vans lately with "Not for hire, Employees only" signs on them. I know of 3 pieces of property that have been sold to Chinese and there are apartment buildings going up, speculation is that they are to house these online workers.

What we believe is happening is that the Chinese hire and bring the workers over, the live in housing rented to them by the employers, they eat in these eateries run by the employers and are transported to and fro in vans by the employers. This is reminiscent of the "Company Store" of the early 20th century.

There was an article in the paper today about trying to get all these folks to pay income tax. Because right now, very little is trickling down to the national economy. The employee rent is going to the boss, the food cost is going to the boss, transportation is going to the boss and I bet what ever is left over is being remitted to families back in china.  

But didn't the OP say it was  the 3rd biggest foreign earnee for the Philippines?  Must still be contributing a fair bit to the economy one way or another.  If nothing else, profits tax to the government and I'm sure more.  

[OnMyWay]

44 minutes ago, hk blues said:

But didn't the OP say it was  the 3rd biggest foreign earnee for the Philippines?  Must still be contributing a fair bit to the economy one way or another.  If nothing else, profits tax to the government and I'm sure more.  

Seems like a ripe opportunity for huge corruption!  Read the articles Dave linked.  Very interesting!

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

That got me searching the news.  I found an investigative report on Rappler from last month.  It is a long read but a good one if you can ignore all the advertising crap that Rappler has been putting on their news articles lately.  Too long to copy and paste so here is the link:

https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/investigative/232508-life-chinese-online-gambling-workers-manila

Great articles for some perspective!  I'm going to share with my neighborhood group.

[hk blues]

54 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

Seems like a ripe opportunity for huge corruption!  Read the articles Dave linked.  Very interesting!

Regardless, it's either the 3rd largest foreign income earner for the Philippines or its not.  

Corruption - I'd be amazed if none was involved!  

[OnMyWay]

51 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Regardless, it's either the 3rd largest foreign income earner for the Philippines or its not.  

Corruption - I'd be amazed if none was involved!  

One of my neighbors, a retired police officer from the U.S., said the whole thing stinks of organized crime.  I would have to agree.