PCSO starts probe on STL operations

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office disclosed yesterday that the agency has started an investigation on the operations of the Small Town Lotteries (STL) in the provinces to verify reports that the operators may be serving as fronts of jueteng and other illegal numbers games.

“We are still in the process of reviewing the STL operations,” Jose Ferdinand Rojas II, PCSO general manager, told The STAR.

He declined to give details on the probe but sources at the PCSO said that the agency is focusing on the illegal operations of STL operators, which were exposed by retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz.

Cruz revealed during a recent congressional hearing that STL operators are being used as fronts of jueteng operators in Angeles City, Bataan, Bulacan and Quezon.

Among the suspected jueteng fronts are big gaming corporations identified with known gambling lords in Luzon.

The continued jueteng operations under the guise of STL have resulted in huge losses in sales of the legal operators in Luzon.

PCSO records showed that the STL has accumulated P8.4 billion in sales since it started in 2006. Sales, however, dropped to P1.9 billion in 2009 from P2.3 billion in 2008.

The decline of the sales of STL was blamed on jueteng operations because instead of selling legal STL tickets, the bet collectors encourage people to play jueteng, which uses the results of the STL draw as the basis of the winnings of the illegal gambling operations.