Wenceslao: Masiao craze of old

I WAS but a kid when the craze over the illegal numbers game masiao reached its peak. Almost everybody in our neighborhood in Sitio Kawayan in Barangay Sambag 2 was swept by the craze. That was when the jai alai fronton in Mambaling still operated and many people were drawn both to the games and to the riches it heaped on lucky ticket holders. While gambling at the fronton was profitable, so did masiao operators make a killing in Cebu communities.

I didn't know how jai alai was scored and how the number combinations in tickets were formed. But I knew that jai alai was a sport played by “cesta”-wielding Spaniards who bounce a ball off the wall. In time, we kids would also spend our time bouncing tennis balls off walls using “cestas” fashioned from discarded one liter oil containers.

“Masiao” based the winning three-number combination to the result of the jai alai game at the Mambaling fronton. I heard stories about the Spaniard “pelotaris” (players) fixing games so the desired number combination dictated upon by gambling operators would win. The idea was to ensure that only the number combinations in unsold tickets would win so money set aside for dividends would be transformed into profit.

The “masiao” operation resulted in the establishment of a network of “ushers” (ticket sellers) and “coordinators” (where the “ushers” turn over their earnings) at the service of gambling operators. In a way, the craze helped in curbing unemployment in the communities. I didn't gamble much but I did win once, getting only P8 as dividend for a ticket worth only a few centavos.

But the “masiao” craze had a negative effect on many people. Some gambling “addicts” used money intended for family expenses to buy “masiao” tickets. Others resorted to thievery. “Computing” possible winning number combinations occupied the time of many. Some of them went literally crazy because of this.

The ouster of then dictator Ferdinand Marcos via the 1986 Edsa people power revolt was the beginning of the end of the “masiao” craze. Because of widespread complaints about it, the administration of then president Corazon Aquino padlocked the Mambaling fronton. Gambling operators no longer had the jai alai game to base the winning number combination on.

Of course, “masiao” didn't fully go away. “Masiao” tickets were still sold through the years but because gambling operators merely plucked the winning number combination from thin air, the legitimacy of the result was questioned. But that changed when the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) conceived the three-number combination lottery or “lotto.” Now “masiao” operators have something to base the masiao ticket combinations on.

I am wroting about this because of the recent controversy involving small-town lottery (STL). The STL was conceived in 1987 supposedly to stamp out the operation of the illegal numbers game “jueteng” in Luzon. But the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has bared that some STL outlets are being used as front for illegal gambling. PCSO chair Erineo Maliksi also received reports that some STL operators used their licenses to conduct jueteng operations and not declare sales to PCSO.

I reckon that the STL, whose operation in Cebu was blocked, is set to make a foray into the province soon. I hope PCSO will ensure that it won't be used as front for masiao operations.

(khanwens@gmail.com)