CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, July 8 (PNA) -– The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) in Northern Mindanao has cut its financial and medical assistance by half starting Wednesday, a sweepstakes official said.
Raul Regondola, regional PCSO manager in Northern Mindanao, said that the PCSO is cutting all financial and medical assistance by 50 percent due to revenue losses of the regional PCSO office.
“The losses incurred is due to the unabated operation of illegal “swertres” number game that has become a stiff competitor of the PCSO, a government recognized lotto outlet in the country,” Regondola said.“Swerteres” is a three number combination game. The PCSO draws the results three times daily – in the morning, midday, and evening.
Regondola said that the local law enforcers appeared to be helpless in curtailing the proliferation of the “illegal lotto outlets” whose operation has now become computerized and sophisticated.
The illegal lotto operations in Northern Mindanao have become a threat and a big blow to the operation of the state-authorized PCSO outlets, Regondola said.
He said that prior to the propagation of the illegal lotto outlets, the PCSO regional office earned as much as Php 135 million from its authorized lotto outlets every month.
“With the spread of the illegal lotto outlets, the PCSO’s regional office now collects only as much as Php 55 million a month,” Regondola said.
He said that the current situation has compelled the regional PCSO office to reduce its financial and medical aid by 50 percent.
Aside from extending regular assistance to the local government units in a form of ambulance and medicines, the regional PCSO office also extends assistance to hundreds of people who flock to the office every day.
“We do not want to cut financial assistance to the patients until the problem of illegal lotto outlets is resolved,” Regondola said. (PNA)