Gambling addicts

For a long time now, an ad for Casino Plus keeps popping up on my cell phone and email. Each time I delete the ads, they pop back up in seconds.

On Wednesday when I looked at my cell phone and email, the ads were mercifully gone.

I suspected that it could have something to do with the pitch of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) for tighter regulation instead of a total ban on all forms of online gaming.

The operative word is “tighter.”

The Casino Plus ads bore the PAGCOR logo. Before the un-erasable ads disappeared mysteriously last Wednesday, even children could easily click on the ad and enter the virtual casino. Any minor with an e-wallet account (and there are many of them) could play.

Sites for bingo games, and previously, e-sabong, have also been easily accessible on smartphones. Since the starting bets can be relatively small, the easy accessibility is a highly effective come-on.

Yesterday, the casino ads were back. Did the one-day break lead to a substantial decline in betting?

There are many people for whom spending their idle time in a game of chance, with the possibility of making easy money, can be irresistible. Especially if the promised virtual casino “grand jackpot” is P21,950,888 (as of noon yesterday). And with endorsers such as entertainment stars Alden Richards, Julia Barretto and Barbie Imperial.

The appeal of a fast buck is most enhanced by the easy accessibility of placing bets.

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For the gaming industry, digital technology has been a godsend. For society, it’s a path to perdition due to gambling addiction – a problem that is causing concern serious enough for several lawmakers to push for a total ban on online gaming.

PAGCOR chairman Alejandro Tengco is proposing curbs on outdoor advertising for all forms of online gaming. He’s proposing this even as people opposed to gambling are finding it impossible to get rid of PAGCOR gaming ads on cell phones and email.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan says that it’s time to tax online gaming. Taxation may be facilitated, he says, because online payments are made through e-wallet apps.

Opponents, on the other hand, say taxation will legitimize online gaming and make it even more widespread, posing challenges to regulation.

It’s not the first time that gambling addiction and the social ills associated with the vice have been put in the spotlight.

In June 2017, a former tax specialist for the Department of Finance, Jessie Javier Carlos, entered a casino in Pasay City, fired warning shots that hit the ceilings and set fire to gaming tables and slot machines. He blasted his way into a storage room and tried to haul out poker chips reportedly worth $2 million. Smoke inhalation from the fires he set off killed 37 people, and Carlos was later found dead.

Police said gambling addiction forced Carlos to sell his two-hectare farm in Tanauan, Batangas where he bred fighting cocks. Yes, folks, Carlos was also a cockfight enthusiast.

Deep in debt, he even reportedly tried to sell the gun that he apparently used to shoot himself. He had become so addicted to casino gambling that PAGCOR had banned him from its casinos upon the request of his family. At the time of his death, Carlos reportedly had an outstanding bank debt of at least P4 million.

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Following that incident, there was talk about restricting state-run gaming. Instead Rodrigo Duterte opened the doors to Philippine offshore gaming operations, ignoring repeated requests and warnings from China to shut down the POGOs because of the social ills engendered by gambling.

Duterte did suspend e-sabong operations in 2022 amid the disappearance of the 34 cockfight aficionados. But he refused to stop POGO operations – one of the few requests from Beijing that he rejected.

Gambling is illegal in China, for all its citizens including those overseas. But Beijing has allowed casinos to continue operating in its special administrative region, Macau. The casino operations started during the Portuguese colonial era.

In the Philippines, state gaming revenues finance many social welfare programs, so a total gaming ban is unlikely. Apart from casinos, the government runs the lottery, sweepstakes, bingo and STL or small-town lottery, which was supposed to supplant jueteng and other micro betting games but has so far failed to do so.

With the horrific stories emerging about what allegedly happened to not just 34 but up to 108 sabungeros, and with increasing concern over online gaming addiction, lawmakers are now eyeing a total ban on online gaming.

Proposals have also been revived to restrict brick-and-mortar casinos to special zones, for easier monitoring, security and taxation. Even before this can happen, however, regulators now face a slew of online games, both illegal and state-sponsored.

Gambling has zero appeal for me, and I’ve tried dissuading some folks from online gaming. I told them what several former PAGCOR chiefs have told me, when I asked if all those huge prizes ever put the financial viability of their casinos at risk: ultimately, they said with a grin, the house always wins.

The folks, including those with modest income, brushed my warnings aside, pointing out that they were placing only small bets and were simply having fun. And look how easy it is, they said, to place bets through their cell phones.

With the promise of a quick buck just a click away, more and more people are getting hooked. Including minors.

Regulating these activities could prove as tough as getting rid of the digital gaming ads.