MANILA -- The Philippines hosted from Friday what was billed as Asia's largest gathering of online gaming stakeholders, with Chinese expatriate workers increasingly under the spotlight.

The 3-day Phil-Asian Gaming Expo or PAGE will include 30,000 gaming entrepreneurs and 200 exhibitors. It will also mark the public debut of 1,000 online games, products solutions, and peripheral products, according to a statement announcing the event.

Chinese nationals have begun working in the Philippines, catering to compatriots who engage in online gaming back home. This drove demand for residential and office space around so-called POGOs or Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations sites.

This also sparked a Senate investigation due to concerns the Chinese expatriates were competing with Filipinos for jobs here.

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Government agencies recently agreed on regulations for foreign workers and the Department of Finance said they should also pay proper taxes.

The PAGE event in Manila will be an opportunity for gaming industry professionals to "touch base" with regulators like PAGCOR, the Bureau of Immigration, the Department of Labor and Employment and local government units, according to the statement.

Participating companies include Playtech, Oriental Game, Hongtu Game, Global Entertainment, Tianhao, Good Gaming, UG Group, TC gaming, SA Gaming, VR Gaming, iSOFTBET, GPK, Titan Gaming, GuanJie Sports and World Network.