“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.”

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 conscience-less 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.”

I quote extensively from his FB post so its full impact may be grasped by those of us who also weren’t spared by his admonition: “People didn’t care about killing addicts; now people don’t seem to care about breeding them. We are not just negligent — we are complicit. And when an entire generation is sacrificed on the altar of easy profit, we can only ask: who will save us from ourselves?”

To save us from ourselves, and to protect future generations of Filipinos, we ought to stop treating gambling as a harmless pastime and recognize it for what it really is: a social cancer that, when left unchecked, would keep on metastasizing — one bet at a time.

It’s unfortunate that many view gambling as a harmless form of entertainment, a thrilling game of chance, like the bingo games in many neighborhoods. So absolutely harmless, as many assume, that those who regularly bet in a numbers game like jueteng don’t think twice when they shell out a few pesos that just might multiply a hundredfold.

Gambling has become so deeply ingrained in the Filipino psyche and, for many, it has served as a distraction from the monotony and struggles of daily living.

In this country where most of us profess to be Christians, gambling afficionados don’t mind if they probably sin against God’s Tenth Commandment, Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s goods, or if the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that games of chance “become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others.”

And bettors, as in the case of jueteng, also don’t mind if the process of picking out winning numbers is rigged, or if the ₱50 million (2015 estimate) in daily gross earnings don’t go to charity but only to fatten the pockets of gambling lords, local officials and law enforcers.

Whether legal or illegal, the gambling industry has become a multibillion-peso enterprise. Last February it was reported that PAGCOR president Alejandro Tengco “expects the industry’s gross gaming revenue to reach ₱450 billion and ₱480 billion in 2025, from the ₱410.5 billion in 2024.”

Billions of pesos also figure in illegal gambling in its many forms, from jueteng and masiao to video karera and peryahan drop ball or color games. Years ago, it was reported that government could be losing at least ₱50 billion yearly in supposed income for small town lottery (STL) as gambling lords used the STL for their jueteng racket.

The biggest potential for continuing growth in the gambling industry lies in e-games. A published report said its revenue surged by a staggering 309.20 percent in 2024. The PAGCOR chief has said that “e-games could soon match the gross gaming revenue of brick-and-mortar casinos in the next two to three years.”

The lure of e-casinos, with livestreamed blackjack and baccarat, and with celebrities hawking them like harmless fun, has been phenomenal. Three out of every four mobile phones in the Philippines are now hooked to digital wallets — not just to pay bills and groceries, but also used for gambling which ultimately becomes an addiction.

Gambling addiction, classified by the World Health Organization as a mental disorder, affects impulse control and leads to compulsive betting even when it becomes unaffordable. With a mere tap on the smartphone, a bet can be placed, and thousands of pesos could be lost. Algorithms designed to keep users hooked are similar to those of addictive video games.

In the Philippines where poverty remains widespread, the continued rise of online gambling could certainly spell doom, as Cardinal David warns. It’s time to wake up. ([email protected])