ZAMBOANGA CITY — The police have been urged to intensify its campaign against illegal gambling, especially illegal Swertres, that proliferate in several barangays of this city.
Raul Regondola, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office-Zamboanga branch manager, made this appeal, citing the PCSO is losing more than PhP8 million daily due to the operations illegal Swertres.
Operators of the illegal Swertres derived their draw results from the PCSO-operated Swertres lottery and accepts bet as low as P1 per three number combination.
“The illegal Swertres is hindrance to us in achieving our (revenue) target,” Regondola said, but did not reveal how much was the target revenue of his office.
He disclosed that illegal Swertres was rampant, saying there were bet collectors in every barangays, including in the downtown area of this city.
He said the PCSO had opened a Small Town Lottery (STL) to counter this, but still the operation of illegal Swertres persists.
The STL is managed by the DJL1 Corporation with office in Barangay Sta. Maria, this city.
Regondola said they had even discovered that some of the bet collectors of illegal Swertres were using similar uniforms to that of the DJL1 personnel to avoid arrest from authorities.
“I am urging the public not to patronize illegal Swertres,” he added. (R. G. Antonet Go/PNA)
