MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) officially launched yesterday Power Lotto – dubbed as the most exciting online lottery game in the country – with an initial P50-million jackpot for a P50 bet.
PCSO chairman Sergio Valencia said the new game, patterned after Power Lotto games played in at least
18 countries, will be available today in lotto outlets across the country.
“We are introducing the most exciting lottery patterned after Power Lotto (games in other countries),” Valencia said.
Larry Cedro, PCSO spokesman, said they are introducing the Power Lotto to attract affluent Filipinos to “spread the charity virus” by patronizing lottery games meant to generate funds for the poor.
“Power Lotto is a way of encouraging the major affluent sectors of our society, the ABC class, to join the charity bandwagon. They can now help our less fortunate countrymen and at the same time, look forward to winning millions of pesos through the lottery games,” he said.
Cedro said they are hoping that the new game would generate an additional P149 million in charity funds during the first six months of its operation.
The Power Lotto game is a combination of the regular lotto games and digit games where the player will select five-number combinations from 1 to 55 and one power number from 1 to 10.
A player who hits the 5-plus-1 combination will win the minimum P50-million jackpot.
Prizes ranging from P100 to P700,000 also await lucky players who have other winning combinations.
A player who gets the first 5 numbers in the first set but misses the power number gets P700,000; 4 plus 1, P50,000; 4 plus 0, P8,000; 3 plus 1, P4,000; 2 plus 1, 400; and 1 plus 1, P100.
Cedro said it is easier for Power Lotto to reach the P500-million jackpot mark since the initial top prize is already P50 million.
The initial jackpot will be added to the next draw in case there are no winners in the previous game.