LINGAYEN – Here’s the latest claim on the anti-illegal gambling campaign: the province is now 95 percent “ameneng” (illegal video machines)-free.

This was the assessment of P/Supt. Federico Castro Jr. regional officer of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) on evaluating the success rating of the provincial office’s campaign.

P/Supt. Noli Taliño, deputy provincial director for operations and concurrent provincial intelligence officer, confirmed that the proliferation of  ameneng (a.k.a. hataw, video karera or tiwtiw machines) has been effectively stopped leaving only a few hidden by operators.

The mandate of the dissolved Task Force Anti-Illegal Gambling was recently passed on to the CIDG.

The provincial police complemented the CIDG’s efforts with its own parallel operations against ameneng machines especially when the local media echoed the concerns parents, school teachers and those in the religious sectors on the proliferation of these machines near the schools and the increasing rate of truancy among pupils.

Students were already reportedly becoming addicted to the illegal gambling machines.

Based on police records from January to date, 82 video karera machines have been confiscated, seven persons arrested in 46 operations conducted, and 10 cases have been filed in court.

However, no known operator was arrested. — EVA

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