Sinas: STL remains suspended in Cebu City, Bohol

A Small Town Lottery outlet located along Third Avenue in Barangay Carreta, Cebu City stops operating on July 27, 2019, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte orders the suspension of STL operation in the country. STL operations in Cebu City and Bohol province remain suspended as of Sept. 19, 2019. | CDN Digital File Photo/Alven Marie Timtim

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Small time lottery (STL) outlet operators in Cebu City and Bohol province are still not allowed to operate and must desist from doing so unless they want to get into trouble with the police.

Police Brigadier Debold Sinas, the director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said on Thursday, September 19, that STL outlets in Cebu City and Bohol have yet to be allowed to operate since their suspension on July 26.

Sinas said the suspension of STL operation in the region has been lifted except for Cebu City and Bohol.

According to Sinas, he has been informed by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) that the STL operators in Cebu City still owed PCSO remittances totalling to around P200 million.

With this, Sinas urged the STL operators in the city to remit  their payments and submit other requirements to PSCO so they can resume their operation.

Otherwise, he said, those who will operate without clearance from PCSO  will be closed down by the police.

There are around 2,000 STL outlets in Cebu City, according to data culled from the city’s licensing permit office, which also based its figure from what was provided to the office by the PCSO. /elb