PCSO earns P6.1B from STL operations

LIPA CITY — Small Town Lottery (STL) had generated P6.1 billion for the government in the first quarter of 2018, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) said.

Most of the 400,000 STL workers around the country are former workers of the illegal numbers game “jueteng.”

They are now employed as “kubradores” (bet collectors), “kabo” (bet collector supervisors) and “rebisadores” (bet checkers) by STL-authorized agent corporations.

“They are vulnerable to committing crimes like [involvement in] illegal drugs, illegal gambling … because they are deprived of legal means to earn. These are sectors of our society that will not pass [requirements in] normal job fairs,” Alexander Balutan,
PCSO general manager, said in a forum here last week.

The PCSO reported that it generated P15.9 billion from its gaming products lotto, keno, sweepstakes and STL from January to March.

This is P3.5 billion more than the P12.4 billion revenue in the same quarter last year.

Ted Quijano, chief of staff of PCSO Chair Anselmo Pinili, said the agency was on track to achieve its P60-billion revenue target for 2018.

Lotto posted the highest revenue at P7.8 billion, representing a 49-percent share of the PCSO’s total revenue. STL followed with a sales receipt of P6.1 billion (38 percent). —Reports from Delfin T. Mallari and Maricar Cinco