Online lottery goes on without permit

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Friday brushed aside the city government’s withdrawal of a business permit to operate an experimental online lottery game similar to the illegal numbers game “jueteng,” saying it would continue its operations despite the legal challenge poised by the city government.

PCSO Assistant General Manager Beneliza Gabuyo, in a press conference on Friday, said the PCSO would continue its online betting game, Peryahan Ng Bayan, despite the withdrawal of the mayor’s permit, claiming that the PCSO’s gaming operations were not subject to the regulatory powers of local government units.

The city government has canceled the permit it previously issued to a franchise holder of Peryahan ng Bayan, following reports that it was being used by jueteng operators to revive the long-lost tradition of the gambling operation here.

“There are decided cases in the Supreme Court saying we don’t need a mayor’s permit to operate,” Gabuyo said.

Similar to jueteng, Peryahan ng Bayan is a lottery draw on two winning number combinations with a minimum of P1 bet winning P700.

Bets, however, are collected by authorized PCSO sales agents using portable machines, which are connected online to a central server, unlike jueteng where bets are manually recorded by bet collectors called “cabos.”

Peryahan ng Bayan conducts draws in Puerto Princesa City twice a day.

City Councilor Vicky Mendoza earlier said they had collected evidence showing that some supposedly authorized PCSO sales agents were collecting bets but not remitting them to the PCSO and instead were fronting for an underground jueteng operation.

She said their own investigation on the resurgence of jueteng in Puerto Princesa City, after over a decade of inactivity, showed that Peryahan ng Bayan “was being used as a front for jueteng operations.”

Gabuyo admitted that they had received reports about the city government’s concern and acknowledged that they had penalized some PCSO sales agents for not following their procedures in collecting bets but denied knowledge of the existence of jueteng.

“We have no police powers to investigate jueteng but we are cooperating with law enforcement agencies to address these problems,” she said.