URDANETA CITY—The Small Town Lottery (STL) operation in Pangasinan hopes to finally eradicate the jueteng, the old yet popular illegal numbers’ game that survived numerous attempts by government and church to stop it.

Lyn Ang, representative of Golden Go Rapid Gaming Corporation, the lone franchisee of STL in Pangasinan, told local newsmen that their operation is guided and controlled by the terms and conditions of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), from the grant of its franchise, to the drawing of winning number combinations, place of operation, among others.

For transparency, selected ordinary people also act as judge and sign documents containing each draw done and media can cover the draws anytime.

For purposes of control in Pangasinan, there is only one winning number combination each draw, thrice a day, drawn out of Urdaneta City, the area chosen by PCSO.

The company has been operating for the past three months but a relaunch was held last Sept. 8 in the presence of PCSO representatives.

The company bids P15-million a day but it concedes it still has a difficult time covering the amount because of continued “guerilla” operations of other illegal numbers’ games, Ang said.

But the company, she said, is gratified by the efforts of the police to seek out and arrest the people behind jueteng.

Ang pointed out that as STL franchise holder, the company pays taxes to the government and its cabos and collectors have appointment papers and wear uniforms with IDs when they go around to collect bets.

In contrast, she said the jueteng operators, who don’t pay taxes, are constantly on the move to evade detection by the police and continue to buy protection from local governments with the usual payola where they are able to operate.

Almost all areas in Pangasinan are already covered by STL except for two small municipalities whose collections are brought to a nearby bigger town, she added.

STL has number combination from 1 to 38 while jueteng operates with 1 to 37.

The company also operates stations in each town/city where bettors can place their bets, aside from the collectors that go around.

A minimum bet is P5.

The company employs about 500 bet collectors provincewide and former jueteng collectors are welcome to join STL, Ang said. (Eva Visperas)

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