The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is not lying low on its operations against illegal gambling, its Bacolod district office chief, Atty. Renoir Baldovino, said Tuesday, April 16.
Baldovino stressed that they have already identified some of the financiers of illegal gambling in Negros Occidental.
He said that those financiers of illegal gambling are the targets of their operations.
He stressed that they are ready to issue a subpoena against those financiers of illegal gambling if there is enough evidence against them.
Asked if there are politicians involved in illegal gambling serving as financiers, Baldovino said, “We can't really tell.”
He also did not elaborate further so as not to jeopardize their follow-up anti-illegal gambling operations.
There were reports that a relative of a politician in northern Negros allegedly financed illegal gambling operations.
A majority of the financiers are engaged in Small Town Lottery (STL) bookies operations, using the results of legitimate STL operations. The collected bets are sent to their coordinators through money remittance centers.
Police records also showed that the majority of the 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 the PNP documents.*