Super Lotto jackpot swells to P230 million

MANILA, Philippines - The jackpot prize in today’s draw of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s Super Lotto 6/49 online lottery game is now P230 million after no one won in last Sunday’s draw, PCSO spokesman Larry Cedro said yesterday.

Sunday’s winning combination of 30-38-42-43-46-49 carried a P206,375,533.20 jackpot.

Cedro said the PCSO generated sales of P178 million during the Feb. 15 draw, with Luzon registering sales of P137 million and Visayas-Mindanao sales reaching P41 million.

“This means that a lot of people really went out to place their bets. And since no one won in the last draw, the jackpot prize would have an increment of around P24 million to make the jackpot prize for (Tuesday’s) draw P230 million,” Cedro told The STAR.

He said that prior to PCSO’s decision to make draws for its Super Lotto 6/49 thrice a week, increments in the jackpot prize in between draws were pegged at less than P10 million.

However, when PCSO increased draws for its Super Lotto 6/49 to three times a week, increments in the jackpot prize soared to an average of P15 million to P20 million in between draws, Cedro said.

“We have observed that the number of lotto bettors nationwide increased when the jackpot prize reaches the P50 million to P60 million mark,” Cedro noted.

“So, of course, this time with the jackpot prize reaching more than P200 million, we really expect that more people would go out and place their bets.”

The Super Lotto, the most popular of the lotto draws, generated the biggest lotto jackpot of P249 million in 2008.

The Super Lotto online lottery is played on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.