GAMBLING, it gets you the supreme excitement, but it is the most dangerous. Look what happened to Jessie Carlos. He had a family. He had a well paying job. He had a small business tended by him and wife, until he got hooked to gambling. He was fired from his job, run into heavy debts and sold almost all personal possessions.
I was in my mid-twenties when I worked in the casinos. High life. Big stakes. Top entertainment. The danger lies when people can no longer control their addiction to gambling. Some don't only lost their shirts, so to speak, but loses dear life, in the case of Carlos. And God knows how many committed suicide after heavy losses. If not the life, it is the future. But don't be afraid to go the casinos if you can afford it, and if you have discipline. There are two reasons why gamblers lost their shirts. First, they don't know how to bet (meaning, they control their bets, when the house is having a down streak, and bet more when the house is lucky). Second, most players are always victims of their own greed (they don't quit despite having sizeable winnings, thinking they can have more only to discover later they lost everything including their capital).
Throwback. Casino gambling was introduced by Ted Lewin, an American expat sometime in the fifties. Towards the sixties and seventies the Dewey Boulevard, now Roxas Boulevard, was dotted by casinos. They were strategically located along with the famous night clubs like Bayside, Bulakena and Amihan. The big casinos then were Continental, Ambassador, Chrysantemum, La Sirena and few more others. Some of the operators were Nicanor'Junior' De Guzman, Carlos Magdaluyo, Ramon Joveros and Rodolfo Ilustre.
A lawyer from Magalang, Atty. Rogelio Z. Bangsil started his casino business in Olongapo city and expanded in Angeles City in the early seventies. He established Manor Casino when he acquired initially as leased Marisol Manor Hotel in Marisol Subdivision. The group of the late Trinidad Lazatin established Kontiki Casino along the Macarthur Highway in Barangay Sto. Cristo. The late Eddie Antonio operated the Oasis Casino at the Oasis Hotel and the late Rod Feliciano operated the Skyline Casino in Barangay Malabanas. All these casinos ceased operation when then President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law. And including those in Dewey Boulevard.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation is a state owned gambling corporation established during the time of the late President Corazon Aquino. Her relatives and friends changed in leadership in running PAGCOR. And behind all these appointments was her brother, former Congresman Jose 'Peping' Cojuangco. Initially it didn't make good, till the appointment of Alice Reyes as chair and retired air force General Romy David. During their watch, PAGCOR started making billions. It also started expanding to other cities in the country, including the two PAGCOR-run casinos in Clark Freeport and Balibago in Angeles City.
At the helm now is former Pampanga Congresswoman Andrea Domingo and PAGCOR revenues are on the uptrend, more than P50 billion, till the Resort World incident. What is being talked about now is if the Duterte administration will step on the brake pedal, because addiction to gambling which destroys life like drugs cannot and must not be state sponsored.