‘PAPELITOS’ Roving agents at the public market in Bayombong town, Nueva Vizcaya province, use paper sheets called “papelitos” in recording bets from players, a deviation from Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office regulations that say bets should be placed only on designated Bingo Milyonaryo outlets. MELVIN GASCON/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
BAYOMBONG, Philippines—The operations of a numbers game sanctioned by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) have become a front for the illegal numbers game “jueteng,” sources from the police and bet collectors told the Inquirer.
Bet collections supposedly for the Bingo Milyonaryo game here used paraphernalia and mechanics similar to jueteng and deviated from guidelines set by the PCSO.
Instead of bettors placing bets in designated PCSO outlets, betting for Bingo Milyonaryo uses “cobradores” (collectors) and “cabos” (head agents) who roam public and residential areas in this capital town to collect bets.
They use strips of paper, commonly known as “papelitos,” in recording bets and the bettors’ chances of winning are referred to through known jueteng combinations, such as “casa,” “saklit,” “diretsa” and “tumbok.”
“We do not have the Bingo 3, Bingo 5 or any other combination because bettors cannot understand those mechanics. They are more used to jueteng,” said a cabo, who asked not to be named for security reasons.
No machine-generated receipt or ticket for each wager placed is issued. In games sanctioned by the PCSO, an official receipt or ticket is issued to bettors so that they can use this in claiming a prize.
Cobradores also announce only winning number pairs, as opposed to three-, four-, five- and
six-number patterns in Bingo Milyonaryo. On Sunday morning, the winning combination was 0-1.
The PCSO office in Cauayan City, which covers operations in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Ifugao and Isabela, disowned Bingo Milyonaryo’s reported illegal operations.
“[Police] are investigating the matter and I told them that if no receipt is issued, it is illegal,” said Reynaldo Martin, acting PCSO operations manager for Cagayan Valley.
Bingo Milyonaryo in Nueva Vizcaya is being operated by Moon Valley Amusement Gaming Corp., Martin said. Its overall operations manager is retired Senior Supt. Edgardo Divina of the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, he added.
The Inquirer has tried but failed to reach Divina since Saturday.
His assistant, Tom Canilang, on Saturday said he would inform Divina about the matter. He, however, did not return calls made and text messages sent to his mobile phone from late Saturday to Monday.
Senior Supt. Valfrie Tabian, Nueva Vizcaya police director, said police intelligence officers had been continuously monitoring the alleged illegal gambling activities in the province.
He, however, lamented the difficulty faced by police in going after illegal gambling activities.
“We need solid proof of these illegal activities because prosecutors had dismissed the many cases we have filed in the past for lack of evidence. We need to have photos or video [footage] of the actual betting to show that these are really for jueteng,” Tabian said.
Tabian said he would order a crackdown on illegal gambling in Nueva Vizcaya once they are able to gather enough evidence.
“Besides, these [activities] would not have proliferated without the permission of local officials,” he said.