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BY HERBERT VEGO
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No end in sight to illegal gambling
DOES the leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the city and province of Iloilo really expect to round up for good the unauthorized bet collectors or koridores for Small Town Lottery (STL)? They have to, by order of PNP chief Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa.
Why do the koridores have to go illegal when there are already two local STL franchisees authorized by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office – ZFIC-Iloilo Gaming Corp. and Eagle Crest Gaming and Holding Corp. – in the city and the municipalities, respectively? In the neighboring province of Guimaras, the authorized franchisee is the STL Gaming Corp., formerly the franchisee in Iloilo City.
The bad news based on police reports is that some of the apprehended koridores soliciting for illegal bookies have IDs indicating that they belong to either ZFIC or Eagle Crest. When jailed for moonlighting for the bookies, they would be released on prompt payment of bail by an unidentified “sympathizer.”
The moonlighters allegedly issue blank cotejos or receipts without the PCSO-authorized logo of the franchisee. If they possess both the printed and blank cotejos, that’s “moonlighting” in disguise.
Naturally, both the ZFIC and Eagle Crest managements deny tolerating the anomaly. Otherwise, they could be suspected of collusion with the koridores.
In reaction, Eagle Crest’s big boss, Sam Aguilar, went on the air to announce that he strictly monitors his ID-bearing koridores, seeing to it that they deal only with bettors anywhere in the 43 towns of Iloilo province, but not in the city. Unfortunately, there are misinformed policemen who arrest his authorized collectors on the mistaken notion that a koridor from one town (Janiuay, for example) may not saturate another town (say, Cabatuan). Incidentally, Eagle Crest is under pressure to earn as much as possible to comply with its contract with PCSO requiring it to remit a minimum guarantee of three million pesos per day.
ZFIC’s Thelma “Bebit” Zerrudo, on the other hand, remits two million pesos per day to the PCSO; and so bewails against freeloaders penetrating her turf.
A few days ago, unidentified cops raided the Iloilo City office of STL Gaming, the Guimaras-authorized franchisee, but failed to find any evidence to support reports that it serves as remittance center for a city-based bookie, but to no avail.
The PNP’s panawagan or supplication to STL patrons to go legal is not without charitable ground. The PCSO needs the lion’s share of the STL collections in order to enable the government to educate students, hospitalize patients and implement many other public-welfare programs.
The STL franchisees are obliged to remit 40 percent of their collected bets to PCSO, which in turn shares it to the local government units and the congressional districts. That is why they could only afford to give a commission of 12 percent to their bet takers. They would be lucky to collect a thousand pesos in a day, but all they would get for that hard labor is P120. Who in his right mind would sweat for so little?
On the other hand, they would make at least 30 percent or almost three times from the bookies – still barely enough to feed a family. Given the opportunity to find another source of income, they would gladly shift to that.
It is easy to see, therefore, that as long as the PCSO is incapable of matching the commission offered by the bookies to the koridores, the latter would always find a way to go the illegal way. Otherwise, the PCSO itself would defeat its purpose of legalizing the STL, which is to eradicate illegal numbers game. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
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