A former Philippine Supreme Court justice has been quoted as saying his country’s gaming regulator should not have issued any offshore online gaming licences operated by Chinese, given that gambling is banned in China, except for within casinos in Macau.

“Have you heard about the ‘great firewall of China?’ The online POGOs [Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators] claiming to operate in China are blocked,” the former top judge Antonio Carpio was cited by news outlet Rappler as saying at a public event in Manila on Saturday.

“They get [a] licence from Pagcor [Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp] saying they operate in China but they are blocked,” Mr Carpio added.

In July last year, Pagcor introduced new regulations for POGOs, now referred officially to as “Internet Gaming Licensees” (IGLs).

The former Supreme Court justice alleged that what the report termed “Chinese-run POGOs” were using such a licence as “cover only so they can have buildings, operation with computers”.

He said that the firms might instead be engaged in scamming and so-called phishing via the Internet.

“Just cancel those licences. We are just fooling ourselves,” Mr Carpio was also cited as saying.

Mr Carpio said he hoped the Philippine head of state, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., would speak up against offshore online operators in an upcoming State of the Nation Address.

“It is probably good if he can announce he is against the rules of Pagcor issuing licences on POGO that cater to the mainland Chinese market,” the former senior judge stated in his Saturday comments.

In April, the Chinese government said it was working with the Philippine authorities on matters linked to online gambling, with China asserting that Chinese people were “victims of offshore gambling”.

Mr Carpio, along with former senator Leila de Lima and former Supreme Court justice Conchita Carpio Morales, had previously – via an open letter – urged Mr Marcos to cancel offshore online licences.

“Pagcor cannot, and should not, issue a licence to any POGO that caters to the mainland Chinese market. Any such licence is void ab initio [from the beginning] under Pagcor’s own regulations,” their open letter stated.

In other developments, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on Monday that at the weekend the country’s Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Benjamin Abalos Jr had a meeting with law enforcement agencies and local governments in Metro Manila and parts of Luzon regarding a drive to eradicate “illegal POGOs”.

Brigadier General Nicolas Salvador, acting Philippine National Police deputy chief for operations, said ‘illegal’ Internet gaming licensees or unlicensed Pogos had raised concerns about espionage, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, physical abuse, kidnapping, extortion, digital fraud and identity theft.