Illegal numbers game riding on STL in Cagayan

TUGUEGARAO CITY — What is “atcha?” That’s the Ybanag term for filter, which is how local gamblers called a scheme used by “jueteng” operators to ride on the rising popularity of the government’s Small Town Lottery (STL) in Cagayan province.

Residents here claimed that STL personnel announce two separate sets of winning number combinations each day.

“The [winning number combinations] are disclosed almost the same time as those of STL, presumably to make people think that these are one and the same.

The purpose is to hide behind STL,” said a vegetable vendor at the Mall of the Valley, this city’s biggest public market.

Supt. Warren Tolito, Cagayan police director, said atcha is now under investigation. —Melvin Gascon