THE Senate Committee on Games and Amusement has called for a review of the state-run small town lottery (STL) as this could be used in the operations of some illegal numbers game.

Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel 3rd, chairman of the said committee noted that the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) “must review the entire STL program as it can be used as a shield to protect illegal gambling.”

The senator said that while “STL may have killed jueteng, it has allowed illegal bookies-STL to flourish. Hence the need for a comprehensive review of STL.”

He also noticed that jueteng has successfully coopted the legal small town lottery when he visited Pampanga to attend the Monday flag-raising rites in the provincial capitol with Vice Gov. Joseller Guiao.

“The illegal numbers game has metamorphosed into a ‘parallel’ STL,” Pimentel added.

He likewise said that the illegal numbers game is now prevalent not only in Pampanga but in some other provinces where STL is present.

“Clearly this illegal numbers game is no longer the jueteng, which we know. It is actually patterned after STL, which is one of the PCSO’s legal games,” he added.

Pimentel pointed out that while there is only one game, the STL, there are two “parallel” collections.

“One is what is remitted to the PCSO and hence is accounted for. The second is what is not remitted to the PCSO but is instead remitted to the financier of the illegal numbers game,” he said.

Worse, he said that under this set-up called “bookies”, the collector used by the illegal numbers game may be the same collector used for PCSO’s STL, making it more difficult for the authorities to crack down against this illegal activity.