'GAMBLING RUINS LIFE'. Rod Llacera, a former supervisor at a Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR)-owned casino, shares on the negative effects of gambling with the different sectoral groups in a forum on the proposed establishment of a casino in Cagayan de Oro City. Supplied photo. 

By Hedda Pagli-awan Dargantes

“The government has a lot of resources, there’s no need to put up a casino,” Rod Llacera, a former supervisor of a Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR)-owned casino told the different sectoral groups who attended the multi-stakeholders’ forum on the proposed casino in Cagayan de Oro City, held on February 28 at Xavier University Little Theater.

The forum, organized by the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro in collaboration with the XU Social Development cluster, served as a venue to discuss among the concerned units and sectors the effects of a casino to the society, and to strengthen the campaign in opposing its establishment in the city. 

This was the fourth attempt to put up a casino at the heart of the city and it has gained widespread opposition by many religious groups citing that it will “corrode relationships, values, and morality” of the people. In a pastoral letter released by the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, Archbishop Antonio Ledesma SJ DD warned of the “negative effects that gambling institutions will create in our society: to our people, to the young, to families, especially those who are poor, or those who have just enough for their survival.”

Ledesma also quoted Pope Francis’ statement during the World Youth Day 2016, urging us to “recognize that gambling is a form of pessimism succumbing to luck and chances, with the mask of recreation, ‘depriving people of the ability to determine their own fates.’”

Meanwhile, while not trying to throw mud into the well that gave him water, Llacera said he witnessed how gambling ruined the lives of many individuals especially the youth.

Llacera shared a story of a young beautiful woman who once served as an escort to her grandmother to the casino and ended up being addicted to gambling, particularly in a game called blackjack. “She ran out of resources to support her gambling activities so she started selling her body and got pregnant by one of the VIPs playing in the casino,” Llacera narrated.

Addiction to gambling also impaired family relationships, usually torn apart by emotional strife, neglect, and bankruptcy. “No amount of money can compensate the moral degradation that casinos bring to society,” Llacera said.

The organizers said that this forum was only an initial part of a series of fora with different sectors to block the establishment of a casino in CDO.∎