There is nothing wrong in being generous, but there is always indecency in making pretend philanthropy appear as generosity. Especially when a marketing strategy was dressed as a charitable donation just so everybody would embrace it.
Ivana Alawi, a Filipino vlogger, recently made noise after uploading a video where she announced that she was giving away 100 pieces of iPhone 17. To win one, an individual should just follow her page and comment what color they wish to get.
Before her video ended, Alawi mentioned Casino Plus by thanking the gambling company for sponsoring her nearly ₱5 million purchase. The comment section also has her explicitly urging people to support the company. This endeavor encourages the viewers to follow the casino’s page since the vlogger stated that she will also be picking random followers of the said company to win an iPhone.
When people follow the page, repetitive advertisements from the gambling company will continuously flood their newsfeed, in which they may get lured in. Consistent repetition in advertising creates familiarity among the viewers, thus building trust. Even if someone says they do not associate with online gambling, there is a chance that they may try it out of curiosity and subconscious interest.
At the end of the day, it was not about Alawi’s desire in fulfilling everyone’s dream to have the luxury, but about growing the gambling industry’s influence and making her own money.
A Reddit community, r/PhGamblersAnonymous, with over 81.k visitors and 587 contributors, is one of the outlets of people’s regrets, experiences, and recovery from online gambling. There, a 31-year-old, stay at home mother of three, with the username u/More_Sense_9665, expressed her misfortune with Casino Plus. Her post has the title, ‘Dating Walang Utang, Ngayon Lubog Sa Utang’. It was already enough as a testament that online gambling is a big risk. Her encounter was no exception to the others—at first, it was mamiso-miso lang until she won ₱14,000. That was a blinding amount to Filipinos who struggle financially, hence the time when she got lured in, resulting in ₱161,800 worth of overdraft from eight different digital lending and financial services.
This is not the first time Casino Plus was mentioned in a discussion in the subreddit. In fact, it is one of the most notorious platforms due to its, according to their own website, ‘easy and straightforward’ access to the online casino.
An easier access to these sites effectively lures customers into carelessly spending money because not only it offers an illusion of ‘easy-win’, but also because there are barely any restrictions aside from ticking boxes when entering the platform.
When people access things that are too good to be true, they always find a way to maximize it. Bridges of Hope Chairman Jon Ty had reported a surge of calls from online gambling victims. According to the chairman of the rehabilitation center, 90% of the calls they received were from people suffering from gambling problems since the beginning of the year. In the previous annum, it was 70% of the callers, which is alarming as it has increased significantly.
With the influence Alawi has over the people—considering the fact that her audience and even non-followers were swayed by her iPhone giveaway campaign, there is a high possibility that her simple encouragement for people to follow Casino Plus’ page, may result to a continuous growth of percentage in Bridges of Hope’s recorded callers arising from suffering online gamblers. This would mean that gambling online has severely impacted more people.
Many households had sacrificed their basic needs to the outcome in gambling online, hoping for the next win to be the way for them to escape poverty and emotional distress.
“…more than anything, it’s a stress reliever,” Lendon Purawan, a manicurist from Albay shared his personal insights with online gambling to Inquirer. The article, in which the statement belongs to, explores the shared experiences of online gambling victims. At first, they’d win a big amount which would lure them into doing it again. Sooner or later, they’d start losing a bigger chunk bit by bit. This would result in them borrowing from different people just to continue playing in hopes for their next big win.
The continuous borrowing of money just to pay off their obligations and to fund this activity only burdens them with more liabilities. They may be able to ease the amount they owe to lending services and the casino, however, the loans they took to pay their previous debts remain unsettled. Hence, enlarging their problems instead of solving them.
It became a cycle: hoping for the best, only to be met with disappointments, and a pile of debts.
The harm of online gambling is not exclusive to financial discussion, for it has reportedly become a major problem in terms of relationships. The Straits Times covered a story of a mother of two from Davao City who grappled with gambling addiction. After her first win, she got hooked into thinking online gambling would help them escape poverty. Hence, when she was losing, she began deceiving her friends into lending her money. Eventually, her husband got pulled in as well, resulting to an argument which would wake her up from the high of the thrill.
Ivana Alawi’s campaign resembles the marketing tactics of online gambling: attract attention with the promise of something valuable at first, encourage participation, and exposure to the platform. By encouraging her followers to engage with Casino Plus, the platform’s visibility increases and normalizes online gambling among her audience. Repeatedly seeing advertisements often sparks curiosity that people might want to try them.
For a campaign backed by a major gambling company, the ₱4.28 million Alawi spent upon buying the phones is merely change compared to how much she will make from promoting the online casino—nothing compared to the lives ruined by the influence of e-gambling.
Buying 100 iPhones, which costed ₱85,000 each, in this economy just to flaunt her ‘generosity’ is nothing but out of touch. The giveaway appears less likely an act of generosity and more likely a promotion which benefits Casino Plus’ and Alawi’s brand, while endangering the lives of Filipinos who anticipates for her content.
