Spiritual writers talk of gambling as bad for the soul because it turns into the object of the addicted gamblers’ idolatry.

If you don’t believe that just listen the Catholic bishops and people with deep-throat sources, like our columnist Erwin Tulfo, rail against government authorities and law-enforcers who should be fighting the illegal gambling lords and their operators but are abetting the proliferation of illegal gambling.

Jueteng and other illegal games are generally known to be impossible to eradicate because people in power—including police officers, city, town and provincial officials—are protecting the rackets. Some even believe that these powerful people are partners of the gambling lords.

But it is not just illegal gambling but legal casino gambling that must be watched and monitored.

Last June The Manila Times published a special report disclosing that we had learned from Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) that its agents had arrested a Chinese drug trafficker at the posh Resorts World Casino.

The drug trafficker had asked to be paid in casino chips instead of peso bills for his sale of a kilo of shabu worth P5-million. Shabu is the local slang for methamphetamine hydrochloride.

Pagcor, which has a 35 percent share in the gross income of casinos it grants licenses to, said in a statement that it was not even aware of the incident.

“We are trying to verify with Resorts World Manila if indeed the reported incident took place and we are still awaiting their reply,” the Pagcor statement said days after our report came out.

Pagcor should have known
That by itself already shows something very wrong about the way gambling—and the way possible money-laundering with the use of casino facilities—are being handled by the government. A government-owned corporation, Pagcor has the sole authority to issue gambling licenses and franchises. It is vested with the power and responsibility to regulate the gambling industry. But at the same time it runs casinos by itself or in partnership with the gambling corporations it issues permits to.

Did the casino management not think it was their duty to report the PDEA arrest of a drug trafficker asking for casino chips for payment? Is it not one of the terms of the license granted by Pagcor to the casino for the latter to report criminal activity in its premises?

The Pagcor statement acknowledged the possibility that criminal elements may have been laundering dirty money in casinos and gaming places.

As a result of this and other suspicious activities detected in casinos, the chairman of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, Sen.Gregorio Honasan, wanted to call a full-blown probe into the matter.

The PDEA report revealed how suspected drug traffickers went to casinos and developed the reputation of being bigtime gamblers. But they only actually used casinos as a safe means of laundering money they were paid for the drugs they sold by having the payments made in casino chips.

“Casinos and other similar gambling establishments are also reported to have been used in transacting drug deals wherein payments for the illegal drugs are converted into casino chips to avoid handling marked money,” the report said.

The government’s anti-money laundering arm, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), has no power to investigate casinos and other gambling establishments since these are not covered by the law spelling out its mandate. The AMLC can only look into the bank records of those suspected of various crimes.

Pagcor itself, unless the casino involved is one which it operates or partly owns, does not seem to want to monitor what is happening in all the casinos. Or maybe it does, but the men assigned to be the Pagcor management’s eyes and ears are not doing their job rigorously.

Malacañang want AMLC coverage to expand
Malacañang has said it wants the AMLC mandate to be widened to include casinos. And in June Malacañang said the Congress leaders had assured President Benigno Aquino 3rd that the measure expanding the coverage of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) to casinos and money transfer companies would be passed by July.

But it’s already almost six months after July. The necessary law has not been passed.

In the House of Representatives the law has been amended to exclude casinos from the list of establishments to be placed under the money-laundering watchdog’s coverage.

Casino tourism to the Philippines will be affected, said Rep. Danilo Suarez, a House minority leader. He does not want foreigners to stop coming to Philippine casinos so he has moved to amend the bill. He would drop casinos, internet casinos, real estate agents and dealers in precious metals from the list of establishments to be required to report suspicious transactions to the AMLC under House Bill No. 6565.

The House plenary approved the bill on third reading on Wednesday, with the amendment introduced by Suarez also accepted.

“If you put casinos on AMLA, the Bureau of internal Revenue can come up with ideas to tax all their [the foreign players’] winnings and the players would even have to get permission to bring in money [exceeding $10,000]. That is pretty discouraging,” Suarez told The Manila Times.

Under the existing AMLA measure, a person who is bringing in more than $10,000 from one country should make a formal declaration that he is in possession of such cash. Otherwise, the law would deem such transfer as illegal.

“Let’s face it, putting casinos under the AMLA law is too strict. Under such law, you can only bring $10,000. The minimum bet nowadays is $500,000,” Suarez pointed out.

From the perspective of sheer arithmetic, Congressman Suarez’s is a sensible viewpoint.

Still something must be done to stop casinos from being used by drug lords and other bad characters.