Solon wants investigation of small-town lottery revenue

ANGELES CITY, Philippines - Pampanga Rep. Carmelo Lazatin said he would investigate the revenues of small-town lottery (STL) in the country. During the hearing of the House committee on games and amusements, Mr. Lazatin requested that Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) chairman Sergio Valencia provide the House of Representatives with a revenue report of the STL since the start of its operation. Mr. Lazatin believes that the PCSO and the local government units (LGUs) are losing millions from the STL operations and he said it is about time to investigate the revenue declarations of the corporations involved in the lotery operations. The solon said that in Angeles City, the STL operator declared P6,015,941 in revenue collection last December, which he described as "very small." For this January and February, the STL operator in Angeles City declared gross sales of P5,670,019 and P5,875,737. For Mabalacat and Magalang in Pampanga, P4,077,278 and P4,171,846 were the declared gross sales by the STL operator for December and January. Mr. Lazatin compared these figures with those of the illegal numbers game jueteng which the STL wasa supposed to displace. He said jueteng operators collected P20 million a day for the whole province of Pampanga. "That’s P90 million a month for Angeles City and P600 million for the whole province," he said. Mr. Lazatin said he is not satisfied with the revenues of STL though they are able to successfully meet their objective of eliminating jueteng and providing livelihood for displaced jueteng workers. — Ma. Paola J. Syyap, BusinessWorld