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BY OSCAR CRUZ
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Sunday. September 17, 2017
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MAKING bets based on but luck. Taking chances one after another. Facing risks premised on but blind feeling. Intending of making money with neither sweat nor toil. This is the essence of gambling.
So it is that hard-earned money is lost, most bettors are losers, reason and good sense no longer relevant. And thus it is that gambling addiction is its overall by-product, legitimate professions are neutralized, hard work is despised, families fall apart.
More. Dishonesty becomes a recourse. The vice of gambling becomes incarnate. Honest to goodness work is irrelevant. Prudence is passé.
Gambling per se is already offensive to right reason and common sense – not to mention ethics and morals. It becomes more irrational when it is tagged as “legal.”
So it is that illegal gambling is for the poor and miserable while the so-called “legal gambling” is for the wealthy and powerful. The former is forbidden while the latter is promoted. The former is run by small capitalists here and there with the help of certain local public officials – barangay captains and policemen. The latter is affirmed, promoted and even protected by the national government itself. Both are downright gambling but one is forbidden while the other is endorsed. Strange but true.
Setting aside for the moment the phenomenon of “legal gambling”, it is reported though but briefly and quietly, that the present administration would do away with illegal gambling. So it is that just for the record, following are some of the better known illegal forms of gambling in the Country that remain untouchable:
alpor, mahjong, beto-beto, masiao, biyaya, pares-pares, bookies, partida, kara y krus, polmol,
dice, pula o puti, ending, pusoy, first ball, pusoy dos, forty four, quadro de jack, fruit game, sakla, gagamba, salisi
hataw, suertes, jueteng, tupada, last two, tanching, loteng, tong-its, lucky nine, video carera
While the incumbent administration is far from perfect – what/who is? – the previous administration nevertheless remains superior, prominent and singular even in nonchalantly passing on its three-fold detestable legacy of illegal gambling, pork barrel, and illegal drugs to the now incumbent one.
So it is that the Philippines is in dire need of trustworthy and capable public officials. There are so many social liabilities to eradicate, so many unethical practices to correct. And gambling is but one of them./PN
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