Glory be, Jai Alai is back! All the elements of countrywide, daily gambling, legal and mostly illegal are now in operation. The lotto and swertres are played only a few days a week, they will take the back seat while the Jai Alai is played daily. The Filipino gambler is always one up over the gamblers of the world. While the motto of the worldwide gamblers is “try and try until you succeed”, the Filipinos' is try and try until you die. While the foreign gambler stops when he hits the jackpot, the Filipino will not stop until he breaks the bank or owns the cockpit. While the foreigner stops when his capital is gone and calls it a bad day, the Filipino goes home to replenish his capital until nothing is left with him, not even his shirt. The Jai Alai jackpot, the basis for winning the fronton bet comes out only once a night; this is not enough for the bettors so the masiao is played several times a day.

There are three elements for gambling to be operative. First is the game of chance. The contestants in the game may be one against one like in cockfights or in boxing. Given odds may be even 50 - 50 or percent for or against depending upon the vaunted prowess of the contestant. It may be one against many like a horse race. The odds is bigger this time, say one against six and to add to that the winnings may depend on how much is bet on each horse. It may be as in lotto, a group of numbers against a series of permutations of the number of that group. This time the odds are astronomical so are the winnings. A peso may win hundreds of thousands or millions. Winning lotto is like getting run over by a bus while standing on a mountaintop. Or being speared by a scuba diver in the middle of Sahara. One may spend a lifetime betting on lotto without winning a single centavo. But statistical impossibilities do happen. Dame Fortune is fickle. “Fortuna audaces juvat” and “No risqué rien no attrape rein”. The pig Latin says “Fortune favors the bold and the bastard French says “No risk no gain.” Buying a lotto ticket is like buying a dream, an illusion. One can always dream to escape privations just for a second.

The second element is the capitalist. In the Jai Alai, the winning portion is a small percent of the bet. Even in straight games, that are there is no manipulation of winning numbers, the take is bigger than the amount allocated for the prize. With this ratio there will be no dearth of capitalists, legal or illegal. Legal capitalist such as the government allocates a portion to charity, government and operation expenses. Private capitalists pay protection money to you know who. The third element is the bettor. When the masiao or whatever was the name was stopped, bettors were looking for guerilla operators. None were found because the capitalists went underground or ran to the hills and the ushers, cobradors, coordinators and other practitioners went legal like selling ice cream on a stick or ice drop. Most went into hibernation. With the Jai Alai in operation, the game now exists. Capitalists, legal and illegal will now surface. So will the bettors. To catch the illegals will be a problem if one makes it a problem. If the largesse is liberally spread around there might be no noise. Jai Ali is back. Alleluia! ..