PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Department of Justice to probe small town lottery (STL) amid reports that it is being used by gambling lords as a front for their illegal jueteng operations, an official said.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II told reporters Duterte ordered him to make recommendations about the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and the STL.
“I was mandated by the President to conduct an investigation, verify the status of our STL,” Aguirre said, noting that Duterte had earlier vowed to stop online and illegal gambling after the government finishes its war against drugs.
“He hasn’t touched illegal gambling for now because if he did, he said the people in illegal gambling may transfer to drugs,” Aguirre cited.
Jueteng is a popular illegal numbers game played mainly in Luzon and operated by local gambling lords, with the backing of politicians and police officials, who are usually bribed so that the numbers game can be operated in their jurisdictions without hindrance.
The game itself is a simple game where bettors pick two numbers, from 1 to 37, are drawn once to three times a day in exchange for a small bet that can potentially win a month’s salary.
Although illegal, a large number of people all over Luzon make their livelihood, from jueteng game operators to supervisors [cabo] to collector [cobrador]. The same model is also employed in the Visayas where the game is known as loteng and Mindanao where it is called masiao.
Duterte’s spokesperson Peter Laviña said the President has included illegal gambling in his anti-criminality campaign.
Other forms of illegal gambling that would be targeted, Laviña said, were “Last Two,” “Masiao” and “Swertres.”
Laviña said the Duterte administration will find ways to give alternative sources of livelihood to those who depended on illegal gambling for their income.
Laviña said the anti-illegal gambling campaign would need the “overhaul of the system and cleansing of police ranks.”