Shut down the biggest gambling lord

There has been so much talk about ending or regulating online gambling alongside the very disturbing details that have come out regarding the 34 missing sabungeros that might actually go up to 100-plus.

Senators have stated their position regarding online gambling. Bishops have opposed the popularization of online bingo, which is actually pure gambling. Various columnists and key opinion leaders have written against online gambling.

Even vloggers have lamented how online gambling robs jeepney drivers and laborers. But no one is talking about “the elephant in the room,” the biggest, most powerful gambling lord in the country, namely the Philippine Government.

There was a time when gambling in the Philippines was limited to jueteng and bingohan sa lamay or sa kanto, and the sweepstakes, while cockfighting was called the national pastime.

It all started when ignorant or corrupt government officials and politicians were convinced by devious “gambling experts” that if the government wanted to cash in on the game of chance, it should replace sweepstakes with lotto.

Back then the sweepstakes paid out many prizes and smaller payouts. So, government officials and legislators played along and now we have millions of Filipinos losing money weekly.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Government collects gambling blood money and justifies it as a means to fund social programs and projects.

Then someone told a couple of presidents that if the government can’t beat the jueteng lords, the government should “join them” and put up STL or small town lottery.

Instead of pursuing tested economic strategies, government officials played along with the devious gambling lords, who were “helping in order to help themselves.”

STL became a camouflage for jueteng and legitimized the status of gambling lords as “law abiding citizens” as well as some of the biggest contributors to campaign funds for mayors, governors, congressmen, senators, vice presidents and presidents.

How many “respectable members of society” are actually STL and lotto outlet operators? Unfortunately, greed knows no bounds and soon the “Big Boys” joined the industry by running casinos, gambling junkets and eventually, POGOs or offshore gambling.

Once again, the so-called “respectable members” of society, politics and government participated directly or indirectly. Politicians used fronts to invest in the numbers games and junkets or get a cut from the action.

Bureaucratic lieutenants in turn leased their condo units, resorts, secretly owned hotels and residences to POGO operators and employees, operated shuttle services while those in the uniformed services provided “security” and protection.

Casinos and the gambling junkets they hosted ultimately turned dark when scammers and money launderers got involved in hijacking money from other governments and allegedly running them through junket operators.

That’s when people realized the dark side to gambling as a state-sponsored industry. That forced the government as well as casino operators to clean things up and make sure that money laundering was tempered or reduced drastically.

Given the restrictions to their operations, criminal syndicates turned to Philippine offshore gaming operations. Unlike the casinos, the POGO operators were more generous or liberal in sharing with the business operators.

When the People’s Republic of China demanded that the Philippines put a stop to POGO because of its detrimental effects on Chinese citizens, Philippine authorities and politicians ignored the request. Why would they when business was good for those in power?

Then one day, reports started coming out about illegal POGO hubs that also ran drug and prostitution rings. Then Filipinos learned about men and women being kidnapped or sold to other gangs as employees or as kidnap victims. Then people started getting tortured or murdered.

Only when word spread that government officials at all levels had direct involvement or were making money from POGO did the house of cards begin to crumble. Next thing you know, there were “witch hunts and crucifixions” of small-town individuals, but not national officials.

While all of that was growing like a malignant cancer in Philippine society, the Filipino’s national past time a.k.a sabong was transformed into a syndicated technology-based gambling monopoly earning billions of pesos that took advantage of COVID restrictions and LGU complicity.

Cockfighting and cockpits nationwide were shut down by complicit DILG officials, governors and mayors as well as regional police officials under the guise of health risk while totally ignoring the growing operations and “popularity” of online sabong, simply because it was “the only game in town.”

In its darkest days, online sabong hooked school kids, minors and poor daily wage earners through ease of use via electronic money wallets. Young people ended up with thousands of pesos of debt, harassed by corrupt cops in different regions, causing the suicide of frightened kids!

Operators flashed their cash, traveled in helicopters, surrounded by small armies of bodyguards from the uniformed services moonlighting for lots of money. Greed and money truly corrupts, and the syndicate became intolerant of competition.

Now the government and the people are faced with the disappearance of 34 to 100 sabungeros accused of fight fixing or stealing videos of fights for rebroadcast. The question to be addressed is: “Who Dunnit?”

But the bigger question should be how to shut down the operations of the biggest gambling lord in the country. How many more people need to die? How many more women will be kidnapped, prostituted? How many more kids and families need to deal with bankruptcy and suicide?

We can no longer justify collecting revenue from state-sponsored gambling because the revenues have become blood money!

Congressmen, senators, members of the Executive department and the judiciary need to realize that state-sponsored gambling has become a crime against the citizens. President Bongbong Marcos, Shut it down!

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