President Duterte has ordered the closure of lottery outlets run by the government’s sweepstakes agency due to allegations of corruption.
More than 300,000 Small Town Lottery, lotto and Keno lotto agents have now lost their livelihoods as outlets across the country were shut down today (Saturday, July 27).
The president issued the order late last night, ordering the police and the military to immediately close all lottery and gambling outlets of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, or PCSO.
He did not elaborate on the alleged corruption and said an investigation would follow.
“The ground is massive corruption,” the president said in a video message. “I will not honour any order from any court stopping us or enjoining us to stop our desire to go into a massive investigation for the massive corruption that is existing in the PCSO.
“It’s all cheating and the contracts were like crafted in favour of corruption and to favour other corporations and people. I will not allow it.”
PCSO General Manager Royina Garma has said in a statement that the agency would comply with the presidential order but would appeal for the lotteries to resume.
“Rest assured that PCSO shall appeal to the Office of the President for the resumption of the conduct of all games to PCSO’s mandate and for the interest of the PCSO, its agents, and its beneficiaries,” she said.
The lotteries generate huge revenues that are officially used for public health programmes and charity.
The Small Town Lottery was launched in the mid-2000s to stamp out an illegal numbers game called “jueteng”. In just one year of operation, it generated three billion pesos in revenues and provided 62,500 jobs, PCSO has said.
As of last month, PCSO had 9,354 lotto agents and 2,902 Keno lotto agents. At the end of last year, there were 300,000 Small Town Lottery workers, including sales supervisors, sales agents and sales representatives.
People holding advance tickets have been advised by Ms Garma to keep their tickets until further notice. “To our valued customers, please be advised that our PCSO games are suspended pursuant to the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“All players with advance play tickets are advised to keep their tickets until further notice.”
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