MANILA, The Philippines-The committee on trade and industry of the Philippine Congress is set to investigate this month the short message service (SMS)-based raffle promotions of cellular phone giants Smart Communications and Globe Telecom.
The government-run gaming agency Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) claimed the text games are forms of gambling, and the government should regulate the telecom companies’ text-based electronic games as these are “games of chance.”
Both Smart and Globe denied the allegations, stressing their “text games” are for only entertainment, advertising and promotional purposes, just like the raffles offered by other companies.
Representative Magtanggol Gunigundo claimed Smart earned 6.2 million Philippine pesos (US$118,933) and Globe 5 million pesos (US$116,981) from the text games during the first half of 2002.
The Philippines has been considered the “text capital of the world,” as an estimated 12 million subscribers pump in as much as 120 million text messages. The country transmits and receives 10 percent of the world’s total text messages.
