Gamble grumble

After all the hemming and hawing about what to do with online gambling from our spineless politicians, the Bangko Sentral ng Philippines (BSP) has finally stepped in and taken matters with its own regulatory hands.

- Joseph T. Gonzales

In its publicized directive, the BSP ordered payment alternatives GCash and Paymaya to delink their apps from gambling sites. Quite meekly, these alternative banking providers have undertaken to comply. As they should --the insane popularity of online gambling has everyone grumbling.

What to do? In barely a year, ordinary Filipinos who depend on their mobile phones to pay this and that were suddenly given seamless and quite user-friendly access to gambling. Combine the fun of playing, and the thrill of possibly cashing in on an instant prize (all the while ensconced comfortably in the privacy of one’s own couch), and we had a recipe for addiction --and disaster.

Security guards, carpenters, daily-rate workers, and yes, even hoity-toity gallery managers have ended up in debt, or worse, stealing from family and friends, just so they can place the next bet. Alas, they end up in an even more precarious situation from where they were originally, before they got quite hooked.