Lotto fever strikes US as jackpot swells
By Carlos Hamann
Americans by the droves plunked down their cash Saturday for a chance at fulfilling a feverish dream: winning an estimated $600 million Powerball lottery jackpot.
Americans by the droves plunked down their cash Saturday for a chance at fulfilling a feverish dream: winning an estimated $600 million Powerball lottery jackpot.
Despite a law that prohibits people from betting on the outcome of an election, some of the supporters of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada have reportedly started placing multimillion-peso wagers on who will occupy city hall.
A lucky bettor from Luzon won the much-coveted Grandlotto 6/55 jackpot prize worth P132 million during the Saturday night’s draw, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) said.
A lawmaker on Monday questioned the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) for failing to make public the details of the P1.8 billion paper deal for slot machines.
Evangelist Eddie Villanueva, the Bangon Pilipinas party’s lone senatorial candidate, on Tuesday warned against the possible inflow of “hot money” into the country following the expected surge of high-end casino operations here.
Police are linking the attack on a businessman here to the operations of illegal numbers game syndicates. The attack on businessman Edgar Lim, 49, resident of Barangay Day-As here, is being linked to rivalry between operators of “masiao” and “swertres,” two illegal numbers games popular in the province of Cebu and other parts of the Visayas.
Italian archbishop Angelo Scola is favorite to be the next pope ahead of Ghana’s Peter Turkson and Odilo Scherer of Brazil, bookmakers said Tuesday as cardinals prepared to choose the new pontiff.
The police operation plan carried out by Supt. Hansel Marantan purportedly to neutralize a crime ring was a “mere subterfuge” to kill a competitor in “jueteng” that has continued to flourish despite well-publicized government pledges to eliminate the illegal numbers racket, investigators said.
The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) washed its hands off the alleged “online jueteng” operations of one of its lotto operators.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp (Pagcor) will come out with a set of rules to monitor suspicious transactions even after casinos have been excluded from the coverage of the recently amended Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA).
The camp of reelectionist Manila Vice Mayor Francisco Domagoso said Monday it is bent on filing charges against police officers who arrested him and five other fellow councilors over a bingo game last weekend in Sta. Cruz district, Manila.
The gambling losses reached more than $1 billion. The former mayor of a major U.S. city appears to blame the spree on a brain tumor.
Casinos were given a free pass as Congress Wednesday passed a tougher law against money-laundering but protected the government’s bid to chase mega-dollars in Asia’s gaming boom.
