PCSO to STL operators: Don’t pay cops, LGUs

A bet collector for Small Town Lottery reviews her records at a remittance center in Lucena City. —DELFIN T. MALLARI JR.

SAN PEDRO CITY—The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PSCO) has asked operators of Small Town Lottery (STL) to stop directly remitting to the police and local government units (LGUs) their shares from the operation of the state-sanctioned numbers game.

Under the new STL implementing rules and regulations (IRR), only the PCSO, not operators or authorized agent corporations (ACC), should deal with the Philippine National Police, which is eligible to receive a 2.5-percent share from STL revenues under the PCSO charter. Local governments, under the charter, should receive a 3-percent share from the government-run game.

The PCSO is implementing a stricter guideline on revenue sharing “to curb graft and corruption” involving law enforcers and gambling lords, said PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan.

“In the first place, it is nowhere stated in the law that the ACCs should pay the police,” Balutan said in a telephone interview last week.

He admitted that the government had been “too lenient” in the past.

He said STL was used as a “cover” for the illegal numbers game “jueteng” and “bookies” operations (illegal form of STL). Operators, he said, “paid off the [local] police in exchange for protection.”

P285M for PNP

Balutan said the PNP is expected to receive an estimated P285 million share from STL collection this year. From 18 gaming firms, the PCSO recently approved the application of 56 ACCs to operate STL nationwide.

Balutan said they are imposing a “one-strike policy,” where the license of an ACC caught violating PCSO rules, such as unlawful transactions with the police, would be immediately revoked.

Support for PCSO rules

In a separate interview, Mayor Ramon Preza of Tiaong town in Quezon province, a former STL operator, said operators supported the PCSO’s rules.

Preza used to own Ramloid Gaming Corp., which still holds the STL franchise in Laguna province. He sold his shares in 2011 when he decided to enter politics.

Preza, however, remains a consultant of the gaming firm.

“Bookies (operations) are competitors on the ground and these are protected by the police,” Preza said.

He also denied accusations of underreporting daily bet collections to the PCSO. Ramloid’s daily remittance to the PCSO, he said, is around P1.5 million.

The PCSO said the government could earn as much P30 billion this year from STL.