BUOYED by President Rodrigo Duterte’s clear directive to stop illegal gambling, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office has declared its own war against the illegal numbers game ‘jueteng’ with the formal launching on Tuesday of expanded small-town lottery.
“Today, as we formally launch the expanded small town lottery here in Malacañang, we finally draw the line and declare that it’s time to put a stop to illegal gambling,” PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan told a Palace briefing.
‘‘Today, we declare that the small town lottery is the only legal and authorized numbers game nationwide. To all illegal gambling operators, we offer you both an invitation and a warning: Go legal,” he added.
Balutan said fighting illegal gambling was also in support of the Duterte administration’s campaign against corruption.
“Let there be no doubt, this is not only a campaign against illegal gambling but at the very core, a war to curb and eliminate corruption,” he said.
Chairman Jose Jorge Corpuz said the PCSO had partnered with the Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation and the Armed Forces to make sure all illegal gambling activities would be stopped.
Corpuz said campaign against illegal gambling might not be like the PNP’s ‘Oplan Tokhang’ against drug pushers and users but he called it an exciting war that would encourage people to shift to legal gambling.
“The point here is, we want the war to be exciting. We don’t want it to be like war on drugs. To those in illegal, we are just sending out a warning to them that if you want to be still illegal, that’s your problem. Our law enforcers are there,” Corpuz said.
“The President has said he is serious in stopping illegal gambling and he called on the AFP and PNP commanders to stop illegal gambling, when you stop illegal gambling, we’re stopping corruption,” he added.
Corpuz said the expanded STL would be the only legal numbers game in the country that would enue for health, medical and charity programs of the government.
Corpuz said from the original 18 corporations in 2006, the STL now had 56 corporations that would operate nationwide.
“These illegal operators formed a corporation. They formed a corporation, started paying PCSO with their monthly presumptive retail receipt,” he said.
He said the PCSO revenue had increased significantly in the last three months of 2016 from P4.7 billion in 2015 to P6.4 billion in 2016.