Legal basis and controlling decree
- Presidential Decree No. 1602 establishes the intent to discourage and prohibit gambling that is not regulated or sanctioned under existing laws.
- Letter of Instructions No. 816 operates by exempting specific games from the operation of the prohibition under Presidential Decree No. 1602, when the stated conditions are met.
Policy intent and purpose
- Letter of Instructions No. 816 implements the policy of discouraging and prohibiting gambling not regulated or sanctioned under existing laws (Presidential Decree No. 1602).
- The Letter of Instructions creates a controlled exclusion for certain games when they are truly played as parlor games or for home entertainment.
- The exemption is designed to prevent evasion of Presidential Decree No. 1602 through disguised betting.
Exempted games and conditions
- The games of domino are exempted when played as parlor games or for home entertainment.
- The games of bingo are exempted when played as parlor games or for home entertainment.
- The game of poker is exempted only when not played with five cards stud and when played as a parlor game or for home entertainment.
- The games of cuajo, panguingue, and mahjong are exempted when exclusively intended for parlor games or for home entertainment.
- The exemption applies only if the games are not played in places habitually used for gambling.
- The exemption applies only if the betting is not disguised in a way that defeats the intent of Presidential Decree No. 1602.
Operational effect and scope of exemption
- The exemption is limited to the listed games: domino, bingo, poker (subject to the not played with five cards stud condition), cuajo, panguingue, and mahjong.
- The exemption is conditional on the games being played as parlor games or for home entertainment.
- The exemption is further conditioned on the place of play and on the absence of disguised betting that undermines Presidential Decree No. 1602.
- The Letter of Instructions instructs implementing officials to treat the specified games as exempted from the Presidential Decree No. 1602 gambling prohibition only under the stated conditions.
Execution, signatory, and effectivity
- The Letter of Instructions was DONE in the City of Manila on February 20, 1979.
- It was signed by FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, with JACOBO C. CLAVE as Presidential Executive Assistant.
- The operative command is the presidential order that the specified games meeting the conditions are exempted.