Word is out that one of the giants in Congress wants to stir up the gambling business in this country by creating a super body to oversee it, thus becoming the lord of all gambling lords.
That is, by introducing “legal” gambling—or, in short, state-sponsored.
Anyway, lawmakers from both the House of Representatives and the Senate are already whispering about the proposal to consolidate under one body the supervision of casino gaming, lotteries, horse racing, cockfighting and betting in professional sports like basketball and boxing.
At present, each of those activities are under different government entities, namely Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Philippine Racing Commission and Games and Amusements Board (GAB), although they are all directly under the Office of the President.
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
Gambling in this country is big business—perhaps amounting to P700 billion a year.
Note that the casinos under Pagcor are seen to hit a gross revenue of P300 billion this year, the illegal numbers games jueteng with yearly take of more than P70 billion, and horse racing at P8 billion a year, even minus the bets taken by illegal “bookies.”
