While jueteng, a popular illegal numbers game, has its lull in most parts of the country, this is not enough reason for anti-gambling crusaders to rejoice as there is forthcoming small town lottery (STL) as a gambling salute to the New Year set to take off on Jan. 15.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, chairman of Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Jueteng, said Friday that,” It (STL) is scheduled to be made operational this 15 January to exploit the poor more and make fools of the unwary—and enrich the already rich and famous”.

Those behind the operation of STL, according to Cruz, are “a known high ranking police official, a big financier, and an identifiable mayor”. They will have their franchise from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for the STL operation whose mechanics are similar to jueteng, he added.

He said the sharing scheme would be 10 percent each for the mayor, collector and PCSO, three percent for the cabo and two percent each for the governor and the Philippine National Police.

The prelate said “PAGCOR ((Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) with all its many and varied gambling alternatives in different casinos in strategic places, Lotto and bingo, EZ2 and Pick-2, jueteng and masiao, video carera and fruit game, etc.—all these are perceived to be thriving sleazy ventures, all easily getting the money of the gullible and the poor, all enriching their operators and the latter’s influential and powerful beneficiaries, their protectors included”.
He added that PAGCOR will have a take (euphemism for “revenue”) of about if not more than 23 billion pesos this year. “This is more than five billion pesos every quarter. What a winner—always!,” he said.
He added that it is known that the illegal gambling lords have a composite take of conservative estimate of 60 to 80 million pesos a day from jueteng alone, depending on the season of the year.
“What winning—always!,” he said.
He noted that there must be something fundamentally skewed with gambling. He said the gamblers ultimately lose, inclusive of the proverbial shirt on their back while gambling operators on the other hand infallibly win at the end of the day. This is a standing reality, a historical truth, he said.
In fact, gamblers who on occasion might win, would certainly lose if they continue gambling, he said. On the other hand, gambling operators who on certain days could lose for one reason or another would surely become winners if they simply continue operating gambling, he added.
“If it were otherwise, it would be an exercise in futility to explain how come both government and private gambling operators in this republic are like big fat cats with nine lives if not more,” he said.
“ Come hell and high water, both the so-called “legal” and illegal gambling operators appear to be leeches that avidly stick to their victim gamblers and suck in what they have in cash and in kind,” he said.