Also forgot to add this in the long post:
Sportsbooks: If you bet sports at the sportsbooks there, they take out 4% of the profit on every ticket. So if you bet Tottenham -180 1800 pesos to win 1000 and they win, they take out 40 pesos from the 1000. So you will get back 1800 + 960. This is not like a substitution for vig, it's additional. The 4% is for the sportsbook at Peninsula Plaza and is the lowest we found. One other book was 5%. As far as I know all the books are in the hotel zone and there are none in old town, but I could be wrong about that...I only went to them a few times.
I don't think this is a law because of the fact that various sportsbooks differed in the percentage they took out. My old roommate Stephen had an idea that possibly these books are backed by someone other than the owners (basically they aren't sweating the action) and that the 4% they take from profits is their cut. So I guess they'd sort of be sweating the bets in this scenario because they'd want you to win so that they get their 40 pesos. But yeah...I dunno the reasoning for this and it's sort of tilting because it makes bets that are -110 both ways, -114.5 both ways. So probably just bet online if possible. Or just don't bet sports at all.