THE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office has been losing up to 30 percent of its potential income from Small Town Lottery due to continued operation of illegal gambling in some provinces, the state lottery agency told senators.
PCSO Chairman Jose Jorge Corpuz said this was the main reason its Authorized Agent Corporations were having difficult time meeting their Presumptive Monthly Retail Receipts obligations, affecting government revenues.
During a Senate hearing Tuesday on the proposed creation of the Philippine Charity Office, some AACs complained illegal gambling continued to flourish in their areas of operation and this prevented them from fully meeting their obligations to the government.
Corpuz told committee chairman Senator Panfilo Lacson that as of August 72 AACs were currently operating all over the country, out of 92 approved, and that has resulted in a revenue increase of P8.8 billion from January to August this year, or an increase of 166 percent.
“We will soon reach the momentum, and then from there, the PCSO will review their performance, and insist on is due to the government,” Corpuz said, adding they were expecting the remaining 20 more AACs to operate before the year ends.
However, about 30 percent of potential collections is lost to illegal gambling, Corpuz said.
One of the AACs, Ramloid Corp., which operates in Laguna, reported it collected P4 million daily from STL but loses about P1.2 million to illegal gambling.
Lucky V Prime Enterprises Corp., an AAC from Albay, is supposed to remit to PCSO P2.5 million daily and they were able to meet 70 percent of their PMMR last August, but they complained the remaining 30 percent may have been lost to illegal gambling.
The case was almost the same in the provinces of Batangas, Bulacan, Negros Occidental and Pangasinan.
“About 30 percent on the average of the amount to be remitted to PCSO had been lost,” Lacson learned.
Go Golden Rapid Gaming Corp., which operates in Pangasinan, has the potential of collecting at least P5 million a day, but they cannot fully remit their PMMR because of continued “guerrilla” operations of other illegal numbers game, representatives said. Representatives of Lucky V Prime Enterprises Corp., an AAC from Albay, told the senator they would likely meet their PMMR remittance if jueteng would be totally eradicated as this was one of the challenges they were facing in their operations.
Earlier, PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan called on the Philippine National Police to hit hard on illegal gambling, particularly illegal numbers game “jueteng” that continuously competed with the government-sanctioned STL.
“We have to face the illegal gambling crisis, and double our efforts in the conduct of operations against illegal gambling to arrest syndicates, particularly those who are using STL as a front to cover their illegal business,” Balutan reiterated on Friday.
The general manager said even the STL collectors who turned out to be from legitimate STL operators should not be spared from the arrest if they would be proved running illegal bookies in their areas of operations.
“The PCSO, together with our STL AACs, hopes to finally eradicate jueteng which seems to be the biggest challenge of STL operations,” Balutan added.