Jueteng
Jueteng is a numbers game played in the Philippines. First reported in the late 1800s while the Philippines was under Spanish rule, it was made illegal in 1907 after the United States occupied the Philippines. Despite this, and successive subsequent crackdowns, the game remains popular throughout Luzon, while similar games exist in the rest of the Philippines.
The game is popular among many Filipinos, especially in poorer communities. Due to a low buy-in and the prospect of a relatively lucrative payout, it is appealing and often considered harmless fun. Individuals who collect bets, known as kubrador, are often considered trusted members of local communities. Different jueteng "lords" run their own competing games.
Enforcement of the game's illegality is often lax. Corruption is common, with police and government officials often being accused of running or benefiting from jueteng operations. One president of the Philippines, Joseph Estrada, was impeached, removed from office, and found guilty of plunder, in part due to accepting bribes from jueteng lords. The Philippine government operates the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Small Town Lottery as a legal alternative to jueteng. However, corruption has led the PCSO to be accused of being a simple front for illegal jueteng operations.
Jueteng is very important to the Filipino informal economy. Jueteng operators and their staff were estimated to number 400,000 in 2009, and many rely on jueteng work for their livelihoods. Congress estimated the annual gross revenue of jueteng operators to be around in 2000. By 2019, this estimate had risen to.
History
Under Spanish rule, a lottery was run in Manila, although it is unclear whether it was approved via Madrid or developed locally. It is unclear when exactly the practice of jueteng began in the Philippines, but it was mentioned in the Penal Code of 1887, which means it came to the Philippines around the 1800s. The use of Spanish-derived terms in the game suggest it developed under Spanish rule. By 1893, jueteng tickets were openly sold on inter-island ships. José Rizal is perhaps the most well-known early fan of jueteng: he won while in exile in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte, which he used in part to buy a farm which is now a historical site.The etymology of the word ultimately derives from Hokkien Chinese, specifically the Quanzhou Hokkien dialect of which modern Philippine Hokkien is descended from. The game is sometimes referred to as "Chinese jueteng", when it was introduced during the Spanish colonial times. In the 20th century games were often run by Chinese immigrants, although by the end of the century locals had taken over. It is thought that the term could originate from two Chinese characters, although opinions differ on which they were. When Chinese Filipino publications such as the World News refer to the game, they use the term, "wikt:花", which means "flower shop" in standard Chinese. Although in 1977, a paper by Gloria Chan-Yap was made pointing to Hokkien Chinese as the source of the word, where the author pointed to the terms, "", though by 1980, the same author would release another paper revising her findings with a different chinese character, now recording "". According to, "wikt:擋" used to be written as "wikt:當", and another author, E. Arsenio Manuel, from 1948 did also propose the etymology of the word from Hokkien Chinese as "hoe-'tng'", where the likely chinese characters being referred to would be Hokkien 花當. Indeed as per [Carstairs Douglas, it can be found that in the Chinchew or Quanzhou dialect of Hokkien 買wikt:花當 means "to gamble in or buy into a game of jueteng". Furthermore, it is revealed that in other dialects of Hokkien Chinese, such as the Amoy or Xiamen dialect, it is known more as Hokkien 花會 and in the Changchew or Zhangzhou dialect of Hokkien 花會, from which hence the term "wahoy" or "wahuy", another variant of jueteng, comes from.
Douglas explains that there are 2 kinds of the gambling game, one played using an octangular teetotum with 5 to 8 characters, while another has 37 characters on cards and is played by shaking dice without a teetotum. The latter game is where jueteng in the Philippines comes from as 37 is the traditional number of lottery balls or raffle tickets used to draw out a winning number, but now played with balls or raffle tickets in a tambiolo container that is spun or a bottle-shaped receptacle or small-necked phial receptacle that is shaken, instead of using dice and cards. The practice of using a tambiolo was introduced from Spanish, which calls it as "tómbola", but the Spanish word and the practice itself in Spain traces back to Southern Italy, which in Italian is called "tombola". The carnival game of tómbola in Spain also refers to the revolving container drum and the place where it is played. Tambiolo, as a word, is basically "tómbola" + the Italian "-olo" diminutuve suffix.
Owing to its history in mainland China, specifically Coastal China, it was more popularly and historically known in 花會, read in Amoy Hokkien 花會 and in Mandarin 花會 and in Cantonese 花會. The gambling numbers game started out around the time of the early Ming Dynasty period and grew in popularity during the late Qing dynasty period and spread from Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Tianjin, Beijing, and spread further across Inland China and abroad, such as in Taiwan and the Philippines. It was banned last in China in 1949, but the practice continued in secret under the informal economy and the authorities of British Hong Kong would crack down on the practice in 1975 by setting up government-run lotteries to regulate and compete against illegal private lotteries and allocate the proceeds for charity. In early 1985, mainland China authorities in Guangdong province also began to issue lottery tickets across the province, setting a precedent for the first government-run lottery since the founding of the PRC and regulating illegal informal private lottery activities.
When the Philippines became an American colony, the government cracked down on jueteng. In 1907, it was specifically made illegal by the colonial-era Philippine Legislature through Act No. 1757. Since independence, various administrations have continued to try different tactics to end the practice, without success. Jueteng existed even during the martial law era, although not as openly. With the restoration of democracy, jueteng networks quickly expanded and became key sources of political information and support, up to the Presidential level. Finances from these networks served as an alternative source of power to state institutions thought still favorable to the martial law era, substituting for expenses that before martial law would have come through party finances. This link to power allowed local networks to consolidate into provincial and regional networks.
Gameplay
Jueteng is a numbers game. Before the game, jueteng solicitors, colloquially known as kubrador, collect bets house to house. They are supervised by higher level operators known as kabo, who are responsible for managing operations within a certain community. At the top are the bankero, also known as kapitalista or "jueteng lords".Some kubrador may also erect stalls or kiosks on the street to attract bettors. The bettor picks two numbers from one to thirty-seven. Depending on the kubrador, the game either occurs right then and there, or, more commonly, the kubrador will return later with any winnings.
Bets can be as low as, and it is usual for three games to take place each day. A bet of only can win between and, with payout often depending on the number of entries. A tambiolo is often used in conjunction with thirty-seven bolas to mix up the numbers. Despite this, cheating by the operators of the game is still possible. Each of the numbers has a specific association within jueteng mythology. Various superstitions exist as to which numbers should be chosen, and some kubrador even encourage such beliefs by offering to tell someone their lucky numbers based on their dreams; when a kubrador interprets signs for a bettor, this is called degla.
Government responses
Jueteng is officially illegal in the Philippines, though enforcement of the law is lax. The decentralized nature of the game, and the multitude of operators, make it hard to eliminate. In some areas the game is run by government officials. The penalties for playing jueteng are officially laid out in Republic Act 9287 ; for a simple bettor, the penalty is only thirty to ninety days in jail. Some, such as Justice Marvic Leonen, have questioned the wisdom of going after jueteng bettors when other types of gambling, such as Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, are allowed to freely proliferate. This selectivity has also been criticized as it targets the activities of the poor and not that of the rich. President Fidel V. Ramos suggested it should be legalized. Bills to this effect have even been introduced into the Congress of the Philippines.Tackling jueteng was not seen as a priority by President Benigno Aquino III. However, he appointed Jesse Robredo, who worked to eliminate jueteng in the City of Naga while he was its mayor, as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government. In 2012 the Pangasinan police chief was fired by the national government for failing to stop gambling, after the Pangasinan Governor was accused of benefiting from jueteng. Six other police chiefs were also fired under similar circumstances. Following Robredo's death in a plane crash, jueteng reportedly expanded.
President Rodrigo Duterte suggested the game should be legalized in 2016. Duterte has however taking action against illegal gambling operations, which he accuses of being run under the facade of legitimate government operations. In 2018 Duterte suggested leaving jueteng out of his crackdown on illegal gambling, although this was quickly retracted. In mid-2019 he again announced an easing of a crackdown against the game, citing its role in providing income, and fears those who lose that income would turn to activities such as the drug trade. Around the same time, police chiefs were declared responsible if jueteng operations continued to occur under their areas of jurisdiction.