Davao City suspends STL operation

MANILA, Philippines — The small-town lottery (STL) of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) in Davao City has been suspended.

The indefinite suspension of the state-sanctioned numbers game was based on a resolution issued by the city council, according to Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang, chairman of the committee on games and amusement.

The resolution was supported by Mayor Sara Duterte, he said.

“We have a pending resolution in the city council seeking to stop the operation of the STL indefinitely,” Dayanghirang said during the turnover of 40 ambulances to local government units at the PCSO headquarters in Manila yesterday.

Dayanghirang said the “measly share extended by PCSO and STL operators to the local government was one of the reasons of the suspension.”

“The issue here is how do we divide the money. The bottomline here is money,” he said, adding the city government received P65,000 in revenue shares before the STL was suspended.

Last year, President Duterte suspended all numbers games of the PCSO including STL, Peryahan ng Bayan, Keno Lotto games and the Scratch-It Sweepstakes due to allegations of corruption.