AN OFFICIAL of the Cagayan de Oro City Prosecutor's Office said the number of illegal gambling cases filed by authorities has increased by 250 percent.
City Prosecutor Merlynn Uy, said from a low of 10 cases in August, cases involving illegal gambling went up to 28 cases in September.
Uy said the spike was observed when the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) came up with a self-imposed deadline to end gambling.
"Gamay ra ilang filing sa una, unlike karon, usually ang gakadakpan is ang bettors or kanang gapangolekta sa bets, ang gabuhaton sa uban police, mag entrapment sila in such a way nga muadto sila sa area kung asa naay nag-operate and magpa-pretend sila mu-taya sila. In that way, naa silay bet money," Uy said.
Uy said when they charge a person as a supervisor or a collector, the tendency is that they will agree to plead guilty but not as a supervisor/collector, but a bettor.
"Gamay raman ang gakadakpan nga bettor so ang tendency angkunon nila before the court, so conviction nato sa among part only that dili sila makuha sa atong gicharge," she said.
"Pwede ra man sila mag plea bargain, which is katungod pud nila, nga kung pwede bettor nalang sila as long as musugot ang fiscal ug ang apprehending officer pero naa na gyud kay criminal record," he said.
According to Section 3 of the Republic Act 9287 or an act on Increasing the Penalties for Illegal Numbers Games, a person who acts as a personnel or staff of an illegal numbers game can get a penalty of imprisonment from six years and one day to eight years while the same penalty will be imposed to any person who allows his vehicle, house, building or land to be used in the operation of the illegal numbers games.
A collector or an agent could get eight years and one day to ten years, while a coordinator, controller or supervisor could face imprisonment from ten years and one day to twelve years.
The penalty of imprisonment from twelve years and one day to ten fourteen years will be imposed to a person who acts as a maintainer, manager or operator while a person acting as a financier or a capitalist will likely get years and one day to sixteen years.
A person, meanwhile, who acts as a protector or coddler could get years and one day to twenty years but when someone acts as a bettor, he will only face imprisonment from thirty days to ninety days.