Sto. Niño devotee claims P135-M lotto jackpot

Miracles happen to those who pray for them.

A 60-year-old devotee of the Santo Niño de Cebu who prayed and asked the Holy Infant for a lucky lottery number last Jan. 9 walked into the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office on E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City yesterday to claim the whopping jackpot prize of P135 million for the 6/49 SuperLotto game, a PCSO official said.

"The new lotto millionaire wants to share his winnings with the Church because, he said, it was the Santo Niño who gave him the winning combination," a PCSO official who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

Besides sharing his blessings with the Church, the 631st lotto millionaire intends to invest his money in a time deposit and live off the interest of the money.

"I cannot spend all of that money. I will help the poor," the PCSO official quoted the winner as saying.

The PCSO official refused to give additional details on the winner, citing the PCSO’s strict policy to keep the identity of lottery winners secret. However, an independent source said the lucky winner is a retiree with four children.

The source said the man bought P40 worth of lotto tickets at the outlet on Colon street in Cebu City after he had visited the Santo Niño shrine and wished for the winning number for that day’s lottery draw.

"He said he was still praying to the Santo Niño as he picked the winning combinations at random, with the assurance that, if he wins, a portion of the prize would go to the Church," the source said.

The man claimed his prize at 11 a.m., the source said, and, because of the strict secrecy imposed on the disbursement of lottery prizes, the new millionaire left the PCSO compound as quietly as he arrived.

"The Santo Niño granted the wish of the lucky player to hit the jackpot," the source said, adding that in the days before the Jan. 9 6/49 draw, thousands of Sto. Niño de Cebu devotees flocked to Cebu City. Records at the PCSO showed that the ticket with the winning combination was bought on the date of the lottery draw.

The lucky retiree is the second richest lotto winner in the country, next to the mayordoma (housekeeper) from Bacolod City who won a P145 million lotto jackpot in August last year.

Statistics at the PCSO showed that most of the jackpot winners are elderly and common folk who maintain set combinations that signify important events in their lives. Among the winners are laborers, teachers, job seekers, students and other ordinary folk.

As this developed, the prize for the 6/45 MegaLotto draw game has grown to P60 million after nobody got the winning combination in last Monday’s draw. The MegaLotto game is played every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The odds of winning the 6/45 MegaLotto are 8.5 million to one, compared with the odds of 13 million to one for hitting the 6/49 SuperLotto.