Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office General Manager Alexander Balutan on Sunday asserted that all gambling operations of Meridien Vista Gaming Corp. outside Cagayan Economic Zone Authority are illegal.
“To protect the government-run small town lottery [STL] and guarantee additional revenues for the government, we cannot sit idly and let illegal gambling operators flourish such as Meridien,” Balutan said.
He was reacting to the claim of lawyer Raymond Fortun of Meridien that the firm’s operations outside CEZA are legal, a day before President Rodrigo Duterte declared an all-out war on all forms of illegal gambling under Executive Order No. 13.
With EO 13, Balutan said PCSO will intensify the campaign to protect STL as the only legal numbers game in the country.
“This EO backs PCSO’s earlier declaration regarding the operations of Meridien as illegal,” Balutan reiterated.
Balutan said the PCSO will be recommending to the President a program to strengthen the government’s crackdown on these illegal gambling operations and measures to protect the government-run STL in the coming days.