Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31359117-20170221090358

O # 13 Will Expose Illegality of PCSO’s STL

EO 13 defines illegal gambling as the conduct of game schemes even “when such game scheme is not authorized or licensed by the government agency duly empowered by law or its charter to license or authorize the conduct of such games, or is conducted in a manner that violates the terms and conditions duly prescribed by the said government agency.” By this definition, all STL is illegal gambling simply because PCSO is not empowered to extend such a franchise. And STL’s patent illegality has been further complicated with its use as a ‘cover’ by illegal numbers games (read Jueteng) syndicates who have hijacked it since its inception.

The Supreme Court laid down the defining principles for gambling/gaming franchises when it said in Del Mar vs. PAGCOR [G.R. No. 138298. November 29, 2000] that “A franchise is a special privilege conferred upon a corporation or individual by a government duly empowered legally to grant it. It is a privilege of public concern which cannot be exercised at will and pleasure, but should be reserved for public control and administration, either by the government directly, or by public agents, under such conditions and regulations as the government may impose on them in the interest of the public. A franchise thus emanates from a sovereign power and the grant is inherently a legislative power. It may, however, be derived indirectly from the state through an agency to which the power has been clearly and validly delegated. In such cases, Congress prescribes the conditions on which the grant of a franchise may be made. Thus, the manner of granting the franchise, to whom it may be granted, the mode of conducting the business, the character and quality of the service to be rendered and the duty of the grantee to the public in exercising the franchise are almost always defined in clear and unequivocal language. In the absence of these defining terms, any claim to a legislative franchise to operate a game played for bets and denounced as a menace to morality ought to be rejected.”,  