BRITISH GRAND VISION INTERNATIONAL OFF THE HOOK IN PHILIPINES

16 March 2007

National Bureau of Investigation's case against online gambling company dismissed

The filing of an illegal gambling charge against alleged online gambling operator British Grand Vision International in Clark, Philipines has been dismissed by the city prosecutor’s office.

In dismissing the National Bureau of Investigation’s case against several Taiwanese officials and some 33 Filipino online dealers of the British Grand Vision International Co. Inc. and the TransGlobal Pacific Airways Inc., the city prosecutor's office said Internet gambling was not covered by Presidential Decree 1602 (prescribing stiffer penalties on illegal gambling).

“PD 1602 was made into law by President Ferdinand Marcos in 1978, when computers were the sizes of several filing cabinets and had the computing power of a wristwatch calculator,” the official statement disclosed, reports the Inquirer.

“The former President may have been a brilliant man, however, no amount of genius can foresee the development of this technology. Thus, it would be a tenuous stretch of imagination to assume that he foresaw the development of the Internet and the million and one uses people have put into it and that he envisioned PD 1602 to apply to alleged Internet gaming."

The absence of real players in the alleged Internet gambling casino—which means there were no dealers and bettors to constitute an “illegal gambling activity” according to PD 1602—was enough reason to dismiss the case, the prosecutor's office said.

“One could not charge the dealer alone without indicting the supposed bettor."

Following the decision, the NBI, which raided the premises where the alleged offence is claimed to have occurred has filed a petition for review of the case, which is pending with the Department of Justice.

The NBI maintained that although there were “no live players,” there were actual online players who bet money on games that depend wholly or chiefly upon chance or hazard—which is outlawed by PD 1602 and Article 195 of the Revised Penal Code.

The outcome of the DOJ’s review would resolve whether or not the case could be elevated to a court hearing.

Aside from the pending petition for review at the DOJ on the dismissed illegal gambling case, the NBI is also defending the legality of the raid it conducted on a suspected Internet casino at the Clark Special Economic Zone on October 17 last year (see previous InfoPowa reports).

Judge Omar Viola of the regional trial court granted on December 28 last year the motion to invalidate the search warrant used by the NBI in raiding the suspected Internet casino’s premises at the Civil Aviation Complex inside Clark.

On January 15 this year, lawyer Renato Marcuap of the NBI special action unit filed a motion for reconsideration.

Judge Viola, on February 20, ordered the respondents to submit within 10 days their comment to the NBI’s motion for reconsideration.

In February 2006, then Clark Development Corp. president, Antonio Ng, welcomed the British Grand Vision International Co. Inc. as a new information technology firm that would invest P200 million for computer technology data, website design and maintenance center in Clark.

Represented by its president, Steve Jing Chen Huang, who is among the respondents in the illegal gambling case filed by the NBI, the company announced that it would employ some 150 computer-skilled workers during its first year of operation.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa

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