EDITORIAL - Of masiao and jueteng

Masiao has been successfully making an underground operation for the past couple of decades. Since its inception in the early 1980s, this illegal numbers game thrives even in the remotest areas in the Visayas and Mindanao.  

For decades, police tried to be aggressive in stamping out masiao, raiding from one place to another. But just like video karera, masiao remains standing despite authorities' effort to eradicate it.

Despite playing cat-and-mouse with the police, masiao is still attracting a huge following. For a minimum bet of only one peso, it has been popular among the people, especially the poor.

It seems that masiao, like jueteng, another hugely popular numbers game in Luzon, cannot be eradicated. The police and local government units seem helpless in their campaign against this kind of gambling.

Since the two numbers games are here to stay, proposals were raised for them to be legalized. Cavite Representative Elpidio Bargaza Jr. had filed House Bill 3289 which seeks to legalize jueteng while in Cebu, some masiao proponents, are pushing for its legalization.

There is no question about the validity of the proposals. Economically, a legalized operation of jueteng and masiao would mean another income for LGUs. It cannot be denied that many LGUs are in dire need of financial assistance from the government and legalizing masiao or jueteng in their respective areas can definitely pour some cash into their coffers.

But there's already this small-town-lottery (STL) designed to replace the illegal numbers games. Unfortunately, since the inception of STL, it never gave masiao and jueteng a run for their money.

The problem is that STL is not competitive enough to defeat the two illegal numbers games. That is why masiao and jueteng are still the poor man's games.

The reason why masiao and jueteng cannot be solved is that there has been no concrete and coordinated campaign between the police and LGUs. But that is expected because corruption has been tainting the campaign against these two illegal numbers games.