• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Illegal gambling financiers in Negros Occidental should watch out.
Atty. Renoir Baldovino, National Bureau of Investigation Bacolod District office chief, yesterday said they have already identified some illegal gambling financiers in Negros Occidental.
Baldovino said that the financiers of illegal gambling are the targets of their operations, as he also debunked speculations that they have been lying low in their campaign against it.
He stressed that they are ready to issue subpoenas against financiers of illegal gambling if there is already enough evidence.
Asked if politicians are involved in illegal gambling, serving as financiers, Baldovino replied “We can’t tell really.”
He also did not elaborate further, in order not to jeopardize their anti-illegal gambling operations.
There have been reports that a relative of a politician in northern Negros is allegedly financing illegal gambling operations.
Majority of the financiers are engaged in Small Town Lottery bookie operations, using results of the legitimate STL operations. The collected bets are sent to coordinators, through money remittance centers.
Police records also show that the majority of arrested bet solicitors are jobless, while others are pedicab drivers and ambulant vendors.
While the government sanctioned-STL operations give a 10-percent commission to its bet solicitors, financiers of STL bookies give as much as 30 percent to their bet collectors, who oftentimes also work with legitimate STL operators, according to PNP documents.*
