PCSO's Lotto vs. Jueteng & STL

It's a showdown.

The Philippine Charity sweepstakes Office's Lotto (or lottery) is heading for an internal showdown with STL (small town lottery) and the still illegal jueteng. In a rare comment by former Pampanga governor and priest Father Ed Panlilio during an interview with David Nye of DZRJ-AM this morning, Fr. Panlilio said that the Lotto is the best alternative "at this time" to jueteng or even STL.

Fr. Panlilio explained that both the illegal numbers game jueteng and the legal STL were most likely to benefit private entities who control the earnings of the said games-of-chance rather than that of Lotto which is controlled by the PCSO. Many sectors claim that both Jueteng and STL are the same, the latter still regarded as jueteng in disguise. Jueteng winning numbers are also said to be manipulated by the operators. PCSO's Lotto has a reputation of being clean. Of course, PCSO is also reputed to be a charitable institution where a big chunk of its funds come from Lotto.

I'm just surprised to hear a virtual endorsement of Lotto from Fr. Panlilio himself. I guess he is offering a compromise to illegal jueteng and STL operators to switch to lotto and make their operations legal.

By the way, the firm Comnet has recently started its Bingo Millions franchise and will be another Lotto contender. It looks like another STL version with an online betting component as well, but complete with "kubradors." Let's see where this goes.