locals had taken over. It is thought that the term could originate from two Chinese characters, although opinions differ on which they were. When Chinese Filipino publications such as the World News refer to the game, they use the term, "" (), which means "flower shop" in standard Chinese (Mandarin). Although in 1977, a paper by Gloria Chan-Yap was made pointing to Hokkien Chinese as the source of the word, where the author pointed to the terms, "(hue 'flower', tn 'space')", though by 1980, the same author would release another paper revising her findings with a different chinese character, now recording "(huê 'flower', tŋ̣̆ 'space')". According to (Wang, 1982), "" used to be written as "", and another author, E. Arsenio Manuel, from 1948 did also propose the etymology of the word from Hokkien Chinese as "[hoe(flower)-tng(pawn,bet),", where the likely chinese characters being referred to would be Hokkien . When the Philippines became an American colony, the government cracked down on jueteng. In 1907, it was specifically made illegal by the colonial-era Philippine Legislature through Act No. 1757. Since independence, various administrations have continued to try different tactics to end the practice, without success. Jueteng existed even during the martial law era, although not as openly. With the restoration of democracy, jueteng networks quickly expanded and became key sources of political information and support, up to the Presidential level. Finances from these networks served as an alternative source of power to state institutions thought still favorable to the martial law era, substituting for expenses that before martial law would have come through party finances. This link to power allowed local networks to consolidate into provincial and regional networks. Gameplay Jueteng is a numbers game. Before the game, jueteng solicitors, colloquially known as kubrador (cobrador), collect bets house to house. They are supervised by higher level operators known as kabo (cabo), who are responsible for managing operations within a certain community. At the top are the bankero (banqueros), also known as kapitalista (capitalistas) or "jueteng lords". Some kubrador may also erect stalls or kiosks on the street to attract bettors. The bettor picks two numbers from one to thirty-seven (in some versions, thirty-eight). Depending on the kubrador, the game either occurs right then and there, or, more commonly, the kubrador will return later with any winnings. Bets can be as low as , and it is usual for three games to