Bishop to gather priests to fight casino

BAGUIO–Benguet Bishop Carlito Cenzon is still fighting the opening of casinos here.

In an interview, Cenzon said there are unverified reports of a casino, which is set to be placed in Mount Santo Tomas.

Cenzon said he plans to meet the religious groups and father Andy Cosalan to talk about the dangers of illegal gambling and the plans of groups to set up a casino in the City or neighboring areas.

Cenzon has consistently thumbed down ideas of all forms of gambling including an electronic casino in the city saying talks are ongoing with the Philippine Amusement Gaming Corporation in reiterating his stand against it.

E-Casino offers on-line games such as bingo, lottery, and card games using credit card to make bets. Bingo is offered as family game to customers in a mall here and in the BLISST areas. However, illegal gambling such as jueteng, ma-jong, monte and bingo-teng, a combination of bingo and jueteng, remains a problem.

The church has formed an alliance with the United Church of the Philippines (UCCP) to also block plans to put up a casino at Camp John Hay, the former American rest and recreation site.

Cenzon has since asked the Pagcor to invalidate all the permits it issued allowing the operation of 290 slot machines here.

There are allegedly 50 e-bingo slot machines in a mall on Upper Session Road and another 86 machines in an establishment along Magsaysay Avenue and another 154 e-bingo machines operated in an establishment along Marcos highway.

Cenzon said the meeting with the pastors as well as religious groups will commence after the Papal Visit.

In 2010, Cenzon took the advocacy against gambling to the streets gathering the thousand man strong Baguio Multi-Sectoral Group (MSG) to protest against all forms of gambling in Baguio and Benguet.

The bishop with the MSG then agreed to hold a rally against STL and all forms of gambling in Baguio and Benguet.

In 2009 the same group also hit the streets as 18 lotto outlets were found violating zoning ordinances.

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