The Association of Ticket Sellers requested that the draft bill seeking to increase the percentage to 20 percent be addressed. "We have been waiting for this for 20 years," said the head of the union, Fernando González.
Panama.- Sellers of chances and tickets of the National Lottery of Charity (LNB) have made a claim for the advancement in the processing of the project to increase their sales profits, raising the margin to 20 percent.
Fernando González, from the Association of Ticket Sellers, stated that they are requesting the new administration of the entity to increase the sales percentages. In this regard, he reiterated that there is a draft law in the National Assembly, which seeks to increase the profits to 20 percent. He maintained that a subcommittee was created to look at all aspects of the issue and with the new administration, a step forward has been taken for this to happen.
However, González expressed his concern because the Assembly may soon stop sessioning and perhaps the issue will be postponed to next year. "We ticket sellers have been waiting for this for over 20 years," the head of the union complained about the urgency in adopting a new scale of profits on sales.
See also: Panamanians allocated USD 1.375m to gambling in the first five months of 2024
According to González, currently, the profit percentage is at 10 percent of sales, so raising it to 20 percent would mean a change in the life of the workers. Saquina Jaramillo, director of the institution, said that the corresponding evaluations will be made to comply with this request from the head of the Executive.
Finally, the head of the ticket sellers association explained the need to delve into the fight against illegal gambling, which is harmful to the LNB but also to the workers. According to a recent report from the LNB, illegal gambling would cause the entity to miss out on collecting about USD 200m annually.
While the debate to modify the amounts received by the lottery sellers is taking place in the legislative sphere, the mayor's office of La Chorrera announced that it will carry out operations to combat the proliferation of illegal gambling.
The ticket sellers from that locality expressed how affected they are by the illegal sale of lottery and requested that a stop be put to the offenders, detecting them with operations led by the Mayor's Office of La Chorrera, in conjunction with the National Police (PN), Ministry of Commerce and Industries (MICI) and the Public Ministry (MP).
The affected highlighted that there is a proliferation of premises dedicated to clandestine sales and emphasized that it is unfair competition that greatly affects their income, those of the LNB, and the State.
Authorities will begin inspections on December 15 to ensure compliance with the ban.
The Philippines.- Jesus Crispin Remulla, secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), has said that 47 offshore gaming operators are still operating in the Philippines. He said the DILG will begin site inspections on December 15 to ensure operators are in the process of winding down activities following the ban issued under Executive Order (EO) 74.
“They should show that they are winding down their operations. We are also accounting the visas of foreign workers, mostly Chinese nationals,” he said in a television interview. “These two are interconnected. Once POGOs cease operations, they should leave the country because they do not have a valid working visa anymore.”
In October, Remulla said the DILG was “mounting guerrilla operations” because some Filipinos had learned to set up their own offshore gaming firms. In November, he called on mayors to regularly check business establishments to ensure that they are not operating as illegal offshore gaming operators.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has reported that approximately 20,000 foreign offshore gaming workers are expected to leave the country by December 31. As of November 7, 21,757 foreign nationals linked to offshore gaming operators had voluntarily changed their work visas to temporary visitor visas and 10,821 had already left the country.
In October, the BI issued cancellation orders for 12,106 people who had not voluntarily downgraded their visas. They must leave the country by the end of the year.
