Poker: Baguio's new gambling craze

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Baguio City is going gaga over poker – Baguio’s new gambling craze.

Even Baguio policemen claim they are not aware of several poker joints operating in the city as it even insists they often become toothless as operators are smarting them out.

Some are only two or three poker tables to skirt around the law against illegal gambling (Presidential Decree 1602), admits newly installed Baguio City police chief Senior Superintendent David Lacdan. 

From at least two joints, one operating in a posh location south of the city and another at a car wash business, at least three more mushroomed reportedly beyond notice by police and city officials.

A ‘poker joint’ along Legarda Road, just a few meters from the City Hall is perhaps the newest of the ‘locations’ which reportedly enjoys “protection.” Maintainers and operators reportedly shell out P10,000 a month for a special police unit as “protection money.”

Interestingly, though, policemen last week swooped down on one of the poker joints located at the Central Business District which used a billiard hall as front for the ‘poker games’ and threw at least 10 players to the City Jail. 

The others however seemed to be enjoying police and city officials’ “tolerance.” Even the often feisty anti-gambling Roman Catholic and Protestant church groups in the city are silent on these poker gaming joints.

Proponents of poker, however, argue that poker is not gambling per se. “It is skill,” a lawyer who regularly plays poker said.

But accordingly, a game or enterprise is classified legally as gambling if luck and chance predominate over skill.

And the debate goes on beyond legalities as even the young are allowed to enter these joints as long as “they have the skill”.

The debate on Baguio’s ‘newest craze’ has also caught the police, even the city officials, and perhaps even the now “silent” church into a dilemna.