EDITORIAL - Suspending e-sabong

Minors below age 21 are barred from entering casinos in this country, except in the Cagayan Valley, where the minimum age is 18. Offshore online casinos are supposed to be off-limits to players below 18, but in practice, the sites hardly enforce gambling age restrictions.

Locally hosted online gaming platforms are supposed to be prohibited to those below 21, government officials and members of the Armed Forces and police. Yet law enforcement and congressional probes into online cockfight operations show that the prohibitions aren’t being enforced. There are reports of minors becoming hooked on e-sabong. Robberies have been committed by certain players to pay off debts incurred from online cockfight, and a mother even sold her baby to raise money.

Philippine National Police personnel have been implicated in cockfight-related arrest-robbery-shakedown or hulidap schemes and in the disappearance of over 30 suspected e-sabong game fixers. Certain retired PNP officers including those given sinecures in the Duterte administration are allegedly among the operators of e-sabong.

Republic Act 9287, enacted in April 2004, increased the penalties for illegal gaming. For bettors, penalties range from 30 to 90 days in prison. For employees, gambling site lessors, agents, operators and protectors, penalties range from six to 20 years. Government officials and employees, apart from 12 to 20 years in prison, will be fined from P3 million to P5 million and perpetually disqualified from public office.

Tough penalties. As in most laws in this country, however, enforcement leaves much to be desired. In the case of e-sabong, there is an inability to enforce the rules, or indifference to them. Impunity is likely to be reinforced as the government says that despite the social costs and criminal offenses engendered by e-sabong, it can’t afford to forgo at this time the P640 million in taxes collected monthly from online cockfights.

Last week, President Duterte expressed willingness to suspend e-sabong operations if things get out of hand. At what point the situation will be considered out of hand is unclear. Until efficient enforcement of the law and implementing rules and regulations can be carried out, this gambling operation deserves to be put on hold.