“What will happen to our children?”
How would you feel if you found out that your son in high school is addicted to gambling?
A friend recently told me that they found out that his teenager nephew has been addicted to e-sabong. The boy used to be a consistent honor student but his grades have suffered much. He also learned to steal. His parents were wondering why their store sales have been significantly going down only to find that their son has been stealing from them to bet on e-sabong. The boy connived with their driver to pay his bets through the e-sabong platform of G-cash.
I will not be surprised if there are similar cases out there involving children. While nobody would want our children to become gamblers, the problem goes beyond children. Rep. Eddie Villanueva recently said that his office has received information on four (4) gambling-related suicides that occurred during this pandemic.
Gambling is generally disliked. We are familiar with the effects of gambling addiction on individuals and their families. That is why, there should be strict regulations that must be followed by LEGAL gambling operators. “Sabong” or cockfight has been deeply entrenched in Filipino culture. Cockfighting arenas are scattered in urban and rural areas and cockfights usually happen during weekends.
But what can happen when sabong goes online in a big way? The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has already granted licenses to five e-sabong operators. Since the pandemic started, e-sabong has been proliferating and bets that are paid online can go as low as P100.00. We can expect this gambling activity to be even more widespread because of what the House of Representatives (HOR) has done recently.
House Bill No. 10199, or “An Act granting Lucky 8 Star Quest Inc. a franchise to operate offsite betting activities on duly-licensed cockfighting, derbies, and other similar activities through online or other modern means, anywhere in the Philippines” has been approved separately by the Committee on Legislative Franchises and Committee on Ways and Means on September 10,2021. It was passed on Third and Final Reading on September 28. Why the big rush?
In less than a month, the HOR has granted Lucky 8 Star Quest Inc. a twenty five (25) year-franchise to operate e-sabong anywhere in the country. The bill had four (4) authors and at least 23 co-authors which gives us an idea on how strong the push was for its passage. However, former Party List Representative Angelo Palmones has raised questions on the need to pass the said bill because the group has already been granted a license by PAGCOR.
Palmones added that Lucky 8 Star Quest Inc. is owned by Atong Ang who was convicted by the Sandiganbayan anti-graft Court of “corruption of a public official” for his involvement in the plunder case of former President Joseph Estrada. Ang was jailed for two years for this crime.
“The fact that our sitting congressmen prioritized this measure amid a pandemic that has killed over 37,000 people in less than two years is sickening. Ang kailangan ng Pilipino ngayon ay tunay na tulong laban sa COVID-19, hindi ang dagdag na pagkakataon na magsugal. E- sabong shouldn’t be a priority measure!” Palmones emphasized.
One cannot disagree with the former Representative. The haste by which the HOR granted Ang’s group the franchise is, at the very least, puzzling. Why prioritize it when it is not needed and millions of Filipinos are scraping the barrel because of this pandemic? Our legislators should be hard at work in trying to craft laws that will ease the people’s burdens and help government defeat the COVID-19 virus. A bill on e-sabong during a pandemic is insulting.
If this becomes a law, we can expect more problems, not solutions to problems. I will not be surprised if out of desperation due to poverty, more and more of our people will “try their luck” in e-sabong. They will gamble away their last money in the hope of winning big. This is not an exaggeration because I know first-hand how poor people in rural areas bet their last few pesos on “jueteng”. It is the same mentality.
All restrictions will be gone and even children can learn gambling early on. Because children are expected to be online for their classes, access to gambling sites will be easy. Parents cannot and are not expected to hover at their children’s shoulders 24/7. Just like my friend’s nephew, children can get addicted and learn to do other bad things like stealing. Their grades will likely suffer.
We have heard many horror stories on the effects of gambling addiction on families. If the e-sabong bill that the HOR passed becomes a law, we may very well be gambling our children’s future away. We may also be looking at more families destroyed by gambling – while Atong Ang and other operators have a grand time with the money that should have been used for the welfare of families.
The e-sabong bill should not become a law. We need to speak up and block it.
@bethangsioco on Twitter
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