The more than 24,000 employees of the betting parlors disseminated
around the country are calling for increased benefits for their long
hours of work. According to the El Caribe, most of these employees are
young women, and most of them do not receive the normal benefit
package of other workers. According to the paper, the smallest of the
betting parlors does at least RD$5,000 in business on just one of the
two lotteries currently running in the Dominican Republic. If the
parlor does business with both lotteries, business doubles to
RD$10,000 or RD$12,000 per day. This means that the small stall just
down the street is producing perhaps as much as RD$4.3 million per
year in gross income. Nancy Molina works at a betting parlor and she
says that most employees earn between RD$3,500 and RD$6,000 per month.
According to the report in El Caribe, most do not receive the yearly
13th salary at Christmas time nor are they covered by medical
insurance. Elaine Pimentel said that she works from two until nine at
night, Monday through Saturday and Sundays until six. She earns
RD$6,000 per month.