Is this true? Yes and I found about it only last week when a lady caller on the radio program over DYTR asked whether Jai Alai is legal. When the anchor man asked “why?”, she said “because a Jai Alai betting booth is about to open in her town of Alburquerque.” Then later in the week I learned that it is not only in Alburquerque that Jai Alai betting booth is being opened. Other towns are following suit. It appeared that a Jai Alai franchisee has been negotiating with municipal local governments to permit him to open in their municipalities. We all quite remember not so long in the past how Jai Alai made addicts of many of our people. Jai Alai is a sport that is regarded as the most heavily betted sports in the world. It is also a sport that has given birth to so many gambling activities. Numbers game raked in money for the financiers – last two, masiao, swertres. The originals are legal. It is the derivatives that are illegal.
Anything that brings in money whether legal or illegal will always thrive. There may be campaigns by government and well-meaning groups or non-government organizations to stomp them out. But everything must come to an end. So it is either the campaign that comes to an end or the illegal activity that will die but only temporarily because sooner or later it will resurrect or reincarnate in a different form and substance. The campaign against illegal gambling is like a fight between good and evil. We stomped out Jai alai, last two was born; we stopped last two, masiao came in; we eliminated masiao, swertres emerged; now that there are efforts to vanish swertres, Jai-alai is being resurrected.
Before swertres, STL reared its ugly head but it was cut off before it could show us its face and smile. Well that was then because the Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) stood quite strongly in the middle of its path to Bohol. But the resurrection of Jai Alai is different. Its proponents have become wiser. They did not come with blaring announcement of Jai Alai's new found life but silently, (I am tempted to say surreptitiously) sought the permission of the municipal mayors for them to come in. And whom did they approach first? They made sure they start with LGUs that have not been really known to stand on strong moral grounds. The business permits must have been secured some weeks back before the last meeting of the PPOC. Surprisingly, though, news of Jai Alai being born in some municipalities never came to the attention of PPOC. And yet illegal gambling was in the agenda of PPOC for the last few months.
Of course Jai Alai could not be considered illegal because it has its franchise from the government and has been issued Business Permit by the municipal mayors to operate. But wait until entrepreneurial financiers could smell the scent of sweet and fast money. They will come up with new derivatives of Jai Alai just like what they did with swertres. Then our problem on illegal gambling will be further complicated if not aggravated. Already we are informed that results of the Jai-alai based in (is it?) Cagayan de Oro City is going to be broadcast very early morning over a radio station that is a member of the Catholic Mass Media Association. Doesn't this sweeten the pot? Let's watch the resurrection of Jai-Alai in Bohol and how it can drive financiers of its illegal derivative laughing to their banks. |
