A nation addicted: The scourge of gambling

Goodbye studies. Goodbye decent jobs. Goodbye [to] the hope of hardworking families. And hello — hello to a whole generation of gambling addicts... We are doomed — unless we wake up.”

- FINDING ANSWERS FORMER SENATOR ATTY. JOEY D. LINA

That’s the warning of Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, who didn’t mince words in his Facebook post last week hitting the proliferation of online gambling.

“Who needs to sneak into a high-end casino when the casino has been brought into every living room, every bedroom, every child’s pocket — right there on the glowing screen of a smartphone?” he said.

“Who cares if children, supposed to be studying, now bet away their OFW parents’ hard-earned remittances — sent through GCash, wagered online, and worse, gambled on credit? Parents’ money lost before it even lands on the dinner table.”

The cardinal also hit influencers endorsing e-gambling. “Who cares if young celebrities shamelessly hawk these gambling sites on social media — prostituting themselves for a fee, in the service of conscienceless billionaires who cast their digital fishnets far and wide, reeling in the gullible and the desperate?”

Government, too, wasn’t spared by Cardinal David’s tirade. “Nothing could be more absurd than a government agency wringing its hands over illegal offshore gambling sites — when it has already legalized inland online gambling, fully, completely, brazenly. Accessible to people of all ages, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”