Law enforcement in the Philippines have raided Bodog’s Manila office due to allegations that they used outsourcing firms as a cover in order to take in and send out money from online gamblers. These outsourcing firms would be used as “dummy” fronts.
Officials from Bodog allege that this raid was politically motivated as there are rumors that a former politician in the Philipines tried to purchase Bodog source code from an online blackmarket dealer.
Calvin Ayre, the founder of Bodog, has been helping Bodog raise funds for Typhoon Yolanda relief, to help the people in the Philippines. Law enforcement officals during the raid were apparently trying to arrest Calvin but he was not in the Philippines, as he has not been to the country in quite some time.
Bodog employees in Manila have been speaking out about the raid. One mentioned that there were tens of thousands of relief goods confiscated. “The sack of rice was more than 50, bottled water in liters are in thousands, sardines are in thousands, when I was packing estimated 2000 packed and I think it would reach 5000 and that is just the time I was packing, which is for about 4 hours.”
“Sometimes I hate my country and how corrupt it can be, it is very embarrassing,” said an anonymous Bodog Manila employee. “Our managers ordered food for the staff, the police kept trying to eat it when we were not looking. It was clear that they were getting restless and hungry while keeping all of us locked down. When we realized they were stealing our pizza, we moved it so they could not find it in order to insure other employees were able to eat. We had no idea how long they were going to keep us there and were threatening us with being held for 36 hours. As soon as the pizza was gone, they started eating the food we had stocked up over the past week from our Hurricane Yolanda disaster relief. They did not eat that much food at our office but I just thought this was rude, then I found out they actually took all of the aid we worked so hard at collecting after the raid. ALL OF IT! I understand you want to take the computers but why steal something earmarked for the poor Filipinos suffering in Tacloban. Shameful.”
Officials from Bodog allege that this raid was politically motivated as there are rumors that a former politician in the Philipines tried to purchase Bodog source code from an online blackmarket dealer.
Calvin Ayre, the founder of Bodog, has been helping Bodog raise funds for Typhoon Yolanda relief, to help the people in the Philippines. Law enforcement officals during the raid were apparently trying to arrest Calvin but he was not in the Philippines, as he has not been to the country in quite some time.
Bodog employees in Manila have been speaking out about the raid. One mentioned that there were tens of thousands of relief goods confiscated. “The sack of rice was more than 50, bottled water in liters are in thousands, sardines are in thousands, when I was packing estimated 2000 packed and I think it would reach 5000 and that is just the time I was packing, which is for about 4 hours.”
“Sometimes I hate my country and how corrupt it can be, it is very embarrassing,” said an anonymous Bodog Manila employee. “Our managers ordered food for the staff, the police kept trying to eat it when we were not looking. It was clear that they were getting restless and hungry while keeping all of us locked down. When we realized they were stealing our pizza, we moved it so they could not find it in order to insure other employees were able to eat. We had no idea how long they were going to keep us there and were threatening us with being held for 36 hours. As soon as the pizza was gone, they started eating the food we had stocked up over the past week from our Hurricane Yolanda disaster relief. They did not eat that much food at our office but I just thought this was rude, then I found out they actually took all of the aid we worked so hard at collecting after the raid. ALL OF IT! I understand you want to take the computers but why steal something earmarked for the poor Filipinos suffering in Tacloban. Shameful.”