STL biggest employer in gaming sector, PCSO exec says

In this file photo, bet collectors and bettors gather outside a Small Town Lottery operator’s office in Lucena City to wait for a draw. —INQUIRER PHOTO

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The state-sanctioned Small Town Lottery (STL) has become the biggest employing project of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), having a total of 274,135 employees handling all sorts of tasks from bet collecting to area management, according to the PCSO general manager, Alexander Balutan.

STL employment grew by 120 percent from 112,391 workers in 15 agent-corporations in 2016, Balutan said at a media forum here on Friday.

However, the revised 2016 implementing rules and regulations do not prescribe wages and salaries for STL workers.

According to Balutan, collectors earn between P7,000 and P8,000 on top of commissions from the prize money of winning bettors. They are also enrolled in PhilHealth and Social Security System.

STL is also played in Basilan province, operated by an agent-corporation named Zian. Balutan hoped that STL could create employment in that province, which had been associated with a group of bandits.

“With ‘jueteng’ going legitimate through STL, these workers don’t anymore play hide and seek with policemen. They now have the dignity [of employment],” he said in Filipino.

After lotto and sweepstakes, STL is the third income-earning product of PCSO, raking in P10.4 billion from January to September this year.

“With ‘jueteng’ going legitimate through STL, these workers don’t anymore play hide and seek with policemen”. Alexander Balutan, PCSO general manager

Balutan said mandatory contributions to government agencies, which amounted to P810 million, had been eating into the PCSO’s charity fund made up of 40 percent of net sales.

He said this was why there was a need to amend Republic Act No. 1169 (the PCSO charter) so that more funds would be allotted for charities and the STL shares of congressional districts, cities, towns, provinces and the police would be increased. STL shares totaled P750.3 million from January to September.

In Pangasinan province, PCSO canceled the authority of Golden Go Rapid Gaming Corp. (GGRGC) to operate STL there for its failure to settle its sales shortfall amounting to almost P500 million.

In a board resolution transmitted to the GGRGC president, Geronima Choi, on Nov. 6, the PCSO also forfeited the cash bond of the firm to answer for its liabilities, such as taxes, penalties and charges. Choi could not be reached for comment.

PCSO said it approved GGRGC’s application as an STL authorized agent-corporation for Pangasinan in April based on a presumptive monthly retail receipt of P225 million.

But as of Sept. 30, PCSO’s branch operations sector reported that GGRGC had a shortfall of P430.3 million.

“Despite repeated demands, [GGRGC] has failed and continually refused to pay and remit its presumptive monthly retail receipt,” the resolution said, citing the PCSO branch report. —TONETTE OREJAS AND GABRIEL CARDINOZA