THE House of Representatives yesterday approved on the third and final reading a measure seeking to expand elements of game-fixing and imposing stiffer penalties for such offenses in professional and amateur sports contests.
With an overwhelming 249 votes, congressmen passed House Bill No. 4513 which de fines game-fixing as “any arrangement, agreement, scheme, or act or series of acts, wherein any person or persons, maliciously conduct or cause to be conducted any professional or amateur sports other than on the basis of the honest playing skill or ability of the players or participants or even deliberately limiting the skill or ability of any player or participant in a game, race, or sports competition in order to influence the process or to produce a pre-determined result for purposes of gambling, betting, or as part of a scheme to defraud the public on the conduct and outcome of the game.”
“This measure seeks to expand the elements constituting the crime of game-fixing and prescribe stiffer penalties to arrest the widespread illicit practice, and by so doing, to promote the true spirit of sportsmanship,” the bill’s authors said.
Among the authors are House majority leader Manuel Jose Dalipe and Reps. Faustino Michael Carlos III T. Dy, Michael Romero, Noel Rivera, Paul Ruiz Daza, France Castro, and Arlene Brosas.
Other forms of game-fixing such as point-shaving, game machination, and the act of willfully abetting, aiding, or inducing any person to commit game-fixing and profiting from it are also penalized under the measure.
Point-shaving refers “to any such arrangement, combination, scheme, or agreement by which the skill or ability of any player or participant in a game, race or sports competition to make points or scores shall be deliberately limited to influence the result in favor of one or the other team, player or participant therein.”
The bill defines game machinations as “any other fraudulent, deceitful, unfair or dishonest means, method, manner or practice employed for the purpose of influencing the result of any game, race, or sports contest.”
Under the measure, game-fixing is deemed committed by a syndicate if carried out by a group of three or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another to perform the prohibited acts specified in Sections 3 and 4 of the measure.
The bill imposes the penalty of imprisonment from three years and one day to six years or a fine of not less than P1 million but not more than P5 million or both at the discretion of the court for violation of provisions of the law.
