Gambling lords barred from new lottery–PCSO

Bacolor, Pampanga—Illegal gambling lords will be kept out of the operations of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s (PCSO) Loterya ng Bayan (PLB) when its operation starts in January next year, PCSO Chair Margarita Juico said here on Tuesday.

“The PLB is going to be out by January. It will be fully automated and [with] multiplayers,” Juico said.

Asked by what she meant by the term multiplayers, Juico said, “No lords-lords,” referring to suspected “jueteng” lords or illegal numbers game financiers.

She said a strict screening, coupled by auditing, has delayed the introduction of the Loterya, which would replace the agency’s Small Town Lottery (STL). Its operation was earlier scheduled in February but was reset to May.

Juico said the PCSO has not selected any operator from the more than 200 companies or cooperatives that applied for Loterya licenses.

Jueteng ‘protector’

PCSO announced Loterya in November 2010 on the heels of a Senate investigation into STL as a legal cover for the illegal numbers game jueteng and the alleged protection that Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno, a friend of President Aquino, was giving STL.

Juico said she could not heed the demand of former Pampanga Gov. Eddie Panlilio to stop both the STL and Loterya.

Panlilio said these games take money from poor bettors and cheat the government of taxes due to non-use of official receipts.

“I met with Among Ed (Panlilio) and told him that STL brought in P5 billion to P6 billion a year to the PCSO. We used this to pay off P4 billion in debts incurred by the previous PCSO board,” Juico said.

She said PCSO still has to settle some P3.6 billion of taxes. Proceeds from lotto, STL and other games are expected to pay off what the previous board did not pay in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

The current board had paid P1.7 billion to the BIR. “We cannot just stop [STL]. This will disrupt our cash flow,” Juico said.

Earning more

Jueteng in seven regions grossed P2.575 billion monthly, according to a report the police submitted to the Senate. STL, on the other hand, made P9.5 billion in gross receipts from February 2006 to August 2010, PCSO officials told the Senate.

Jueteng has been fighting for turf with another illegal game, jai alai, in some areas in Luzon and Metro Manila.

The PCSO gave out permits for STL operations starting in 2005 when the game was ordered revived by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Juico said “good fiscalizing” enabled the PCSO to save P27 million from the cost of thermal paper alone.

A renegotiated contract for equipment used for the lotto game brought down the cost of integration, rental, maintenance and insurance from 10 percent to 6.5 percent, she said. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon