No end in sight to illegal gambling
the leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the city and province of Iloilo really expect to round up for good the unauthorized bet collectors or for Small Town Lottery (STL)? They have to, by order of PNP chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa.
koridores Why do the have to go Naturally, both the ZFIC and illegal when there are already two Eagle Crest managements deny
koridores local STL franchisees authorized by tolerating the anomaly. Otherwise, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes t hey c ould be s uspected of Office – ZFIC- Iloilo Gaming Corp. collusion with the koridores. and Eagle Crest Gaming and In reaction, Eagle Crest’s big Holding Corp. – in the city and the boss, Sam Aguilar, went on the municipalities, respectively? In the air to announce that he strictly neighboring province of Guimaras, monitors his ID- bearing the authorized franchisee is the seeing to it that they deal only
koridores, STL Gaming Corp., formerly the with bettors anywhere in the 43 franchisee in Iloilo City. towns of Iloilo province, but not
The bad news based on police in the city. Unfortunately, there reports i s t hat some of t he are misinformed policemen who apprehended soliciting arrest his authorized collectors f or i l l egal bookies have I Ds on the mistaken notion that a
koridores indicating that they belong to from one town ( Janiuay, either ZFIC or Eagle Crest. When for example) may not saturate
koridor jailed for moonlighting for the another town ( say, Cabatuan). bookies, they would be released Incidentally, Eagle Crest is under on prompt payment of bail by an pressure to earn as much as unidentified “sympathizer.” possible t o comply with i t s
The moonlighters allegedly contract with PCSO requiring it issue blank or receipts to remit a minimum guarantee of without the PCSO- authorized logo three million pesos per day.
cotejos of the franchisee. If they possess ZFIC’s Thelma “Bebit” Zerrudo, both the printed and blank cotejos, on the other hand, remits two that’s “moonlighting” in disguise. million pesos per day to the PCSO; and so bewails against freeloaders penetrating her turf.
A few days ago, unidentified cops raided the Iloilo City office of STL Gaming, the Guimaras- authorized franchisee, but failed to find any evidence to support reports that it serves as remittance center for a city- based bookie, but to no avail.
The PNP’s or supplication to STL patrons to
panawagan go legal is not without charitable ground. The PCSO needs the lion’s share of the STL collections in order to enable the government to educate students, hospitalize patients and i mplement many other public- welfare programs.
The STL franchisees are obliged to remit 40 percent of their collected bets to PCSO, which in turn shares it to the local government units and the congressional districts. That is why they could only afford to give a commission of 12 percent to their bet takers. They would be lucky to collect a thousand pesos in a day, but all they would get for that hard labor is P120. Who in his right mind would sweat for so little?
On the other hand, they would make at least 30 percent or almost three times from the bookies – still barely enough to feed a family. Given the opportunity to f i nd another source of income, they would gladly shift to that.
It is easy to see, therefore, that as long as the PCSO is incapable of matching t he commission offered by the bookies to the koridores, the latter would always find a way to go the illegal way. Otherwise, the PCSO itself would defeat its purpose of legalizing the STL, which is to eradicate illegal numbers game. ( com/
hvego31@ gmail. PN)