Ban online gambling, open casinos, STL
The biggest problem in gambling is the government—more precisely, government conspiracy in allowing gambling to grow and prosper. Gambling is a criminal activity, except when the government is made a virtual business partner, in which event, it becomes a lawful business. Operators of gambling are criminal syndicates, except when they give a chunk of their heist to the government, in which event they’re transformed into legitimate businesspersons. For as long as the government maintains a “what’s-in-it-for-me” attitude toward gambling, it shamefully lacks the moral authority to condemn and prosecute any form of gambling, including those it considers illegal and criminal.
Gambling has spawned many of the biggest crimes committed in our country. In 2016, $81 million (P4 billion plus) was stolen from the Bangladesh Central Bank, dubbed as one of the world’s biggest cyberheists. The money was sent to our country and vanished into the black hole of Philippine casinos.
During the Duterte administration, Philippine offshore gaming operators proliferated. Many of these Pogos have lately been unearthed as havens for human trafficking, money laundering, scamming, and other crimes. Through Pogo operations, a mainland Chinese national, Alice Guo, even got herself elected as mayor in Tarlac.
The gambling scandal that’s now bugging our country concerns 34 “sabungeros” (cockfighting enthusiasts) who disappeared in 2021 and 2022. An insider witness has explosively revealed that the sabungeros were killed and their bodies dumped in Taal Lake because they were found cheating the cockpit bosses. Controversial gambling aficionado Atong Ang and socialite Gretchen Barretto are now considered suspects in the disappearances of the sabungeros. At least 15 police officers are also implicated in these crimes, and an e-sabong boss reportedly boasted that he has influence all the way up to the Supreme Court. There are also reports that some congresspersons have been elected with the help of massive Pogo funds.
Gambling and crime are conjoined twins. They’re inseparable, even if the government is involved. In fact, the crimes can be bigger and more numerous if the government is involved as a revenue partner. It is repulsive and abhorrent that the government involves itself in gambling in our country. Through the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, the government is virtually the biggest gambling lord in our country.
The government’s oft-repeated reasoning that it direly needs the revenues from gambling is nonsense. Absent any organized gambling, the disposable money that people have will inevitably be utilized in economic activities—buying, selling, or investing—which will generate taxes that can equal government revenues from gambling. By involving itself in gambling as an income source, the government is simply lazy, myopic, and downright immoral. It has no regard for the multitude of families whose lives are destroyed by gambling.
The government must stop all forms of online gambling, which are accessible to people wherever they are. It’s destroying so many lives. If it’s not stopped, the havoc it will bring to our country may surpass the societal ruin caused by illegal drugs, alcohol abuse, and tobacco use. Online gambling should not be merely regulated, it must be completely banned. You don’t regulate a highly immoral act; you totally ban it. Besides, the tons of money from online gambling will puncture large loopholes in regulations in a country like the Philippines and in an industry like gambling.
The government should also end the highly deplorable small town lottery operations because they ruin the lives of the poor. The STL is nothing but jueteng, operated with the connivance of the government, where kubradors proactively go to bettors’ houses to collect bets three times a day. Money that should be spent on food by the poor is instead used as STL bets. Isusubo na lang, itataya pa, goes the common lament.
Finally, the government should ban casinos that are open to all people, with no restrictions on gambling the entire family wealth, and even on contracting debts to finance one’s gambling addiction. President Marcos should take a page from his father’s rule, when people had to pay a prohibitive entrance fee to enter casinos. It should be enough for the government to merely maintain lotto games, which are passively offered to satiate the people’s desire for games of chance.
Mr. Marcos needs a pivotal policy for which he will be remembered beyond his years in office. A total ban on online gambling, jueteng (STL), and open casinos, would be a defining legacy for his presidency.
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