An Act to Permit Bets in the Game of Basque Pelota

June 18, 1939

COMMONWEALTH ACT NO. 485

AN ACT TO PERMIT BETS IN THE GAME OF BASQUE PELOTA

SECTION 1. Any provision of existing law to the contrary notwithstanding, it shall be permissible in the game of Basque pelota, a game of skill (including the game of pala, raqueta, cestapunta, remonte and mano), in which professional players participate, to make either direct bets or bets by means of a totalizer; Provided, That no operator or maintainer of a Basque pelota court shall collect as commission a fee in excess of twelve per centum on such bets, or twelve per centum of the receipts of the totalizer, and of such per centum three shall be paid to the Government of the Philippines, for distribution in equal shares between the General Hospital and the Philippine Antituberculosis Society. cEaACD

SECTION 2. Any person, company or corporation, that shall build a court for Basque pelota games with bets within eighteen months from the date of the approval of this Act, shall thereunder have the privilege to maintain and operate the said court for a term of twenty-five years from the date in which the first game with bets shall have taken place. At the expiration of the said term of twenty-five years, the buildings and the land on which the court and the stadium shall be established, shall become the property of the Government of the Philippines, without payment.

SECTION 3. The location and design of the buildings that shall be used for the said games of Basque pelota, shall have the prior approval of the Bureau of Public Works, and the operator shall pay a license fee of five hundred pesos a year to the city or municipality in which the establishment shall be situated, in addition to the real-estate tax due on such real property.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Enacted, without Executive approval, June 18, 1939.