Over 41,000 arrested in PNP's anti-illegal gambling drive since January 2023
Around 41,000 people have been arrested since January this year in the continuing campaign against illegal gambling that includes online sabong, the Philippine National Police (PNP) disclosed on Tuesday June 13.
PNP chief Gen. Benjamin Acorda, Jr. said the 41,000 arrested illegal gamblers was the result of the around 50,000 operations conducted from January to first week of June this year—the number of operations conducted, he said, revealed how aggressive local police forces are against illegal gambling operations.
“We really stepped up the operations and in fact, I gave an order to the local police forces to further intensify the campaign against illegal gambling,” said Acorda.
He said part of his order is a reiteration of the one strike policy of the PNP on illegal gambling, which means that a police commander would be sacked from his post if a successful anti-illegal gambling drive was conducted by other units in his or her area of responsibility.
Acorda said one of the focuses of the operation is the online sabong, adding that the PNP’s Anti-Cybercrime Group was already instructed not only to deactivate online sites for cockfighting but also the area where the cockfighting is held.
“So with regard to these online sabong, our case build-up is continuous to really identify these people behind aside from taking down the sites,” said Acorda.
As to the jueteng operations, Acorda said they already had a coordination meeting with the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to effectively combat the numbers game, especially those using the PCSO-permitted game for jueteng operations.