GAMBLING IS NO BUSINESS FOR GOVERNMENT

Opposition Senator Chiz Escudero said he is not for making gambling legal by any means.

"I disagree that any numbers game or gambling for that matter should be used as a policy tool to improve the quality of life of our people," Escudero said during a Presidential Forum on Millenium Development Goals on Tuesday which was organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) aired over ANC.

Escudero said there are clearly more moral ways of providing livelihood to the people who rely on these games for their daily needs. He said that legalizing other forms of gambling would not be the best alternative for providing people with employment.

Even when he was elected as senator, Escudero found that gambling creates more problems than solutions to the economy of the country. He found increasing crime in areas where gambling is most active. He said that studies showed that problematic gamblers often deal drugs, embezzle, or steal to get money to gamble or to pay for gambling debts.

He also found prostitution and sexual immorality as another statistic that is increasing because of what he calls "immoral entertainment" provided in and near gambling houses.

"I do not subscribe to the idea that government itself should be engaged in gambling. There is a clear case of conflict of interest where government is the regulator and operator at the same time," he stressed.

He insisted that the government should get out of any of the legalized forms of gambling and instead regulate the existing ones to protect the public from 'moral hazards.'