Following an alleged anomaly on the officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), the President on Friday, Jul. 26 ordered the closure of all its gaming operations including lotto.

But that didn’t last long as on Tuesday night Duterte lifted the suspension after the National Bureau of Investigations (NBI) found nothing suspicious on lotto operations.

“Franchise holders and operators of Lotto outlets may now resume with their operations. The lifting of the suspension of Lotto operations takes effect immediately,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.

However, not all of its gaming ops are cleared to resume. The Small-Town Lottery (STL), Keno, and Peryahan ng Bayan (PNB) remains suspended.

The very public crackdown on outlets in the last few days garnered mixed reactions from netizens. Some commented on the idiosyncratic approach of the Philippine National Police who took it to themselves to manually shutdown 6,313 Lotto outlets, 20,241 Small Town Lottery (STL), 2,762 Peryahan ng Bayan, 778 Keno, and 190 STL drawing centers, when they could have easily stopped it from the source servers.

PCSO is the principal government agency for raising funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities.

According to its website, the main programs of the agency are as follows: endowment fund/quality health care program, individual medical assistance program, community outreach program, ambulance donation program, national calamity and disaster program, and hospital renovation and improvement of health care facilities.

Header photo courtesy of Inquirer.net

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