Senators join lotto fever, too

MANILA, Philippines - With P375 million at stake, even senators aren’t immune from lottery fever.

Five of the 23 senators have asked their staff members to place bets for them in a bid to win the jackpot that will be drawn tonight.

They are Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, and Senators Francis Escudero, Juan Miguel Zubiri and Ramon Revilla Jr.

Sotto placed a bet on his lucky numbers 2-7-12-18-19-24, which he said are a combination of important dates in his family.

Sotto said lotto can “kill” jueteng, an illegal numbers game, if its jackpots will be pegged at the prize catch of P200 million per draw.

Zubiri admitted he spends P2,000 a month on lotto bets. He has been placing bets since he was a congressman.

“Actually, I have been placing bets in Bukidnon where a cousin owns a lotto outlet. It seems that the winners come from Manila, so I started betting here,” Zubiri said.

Zubiri said some of his winnings go to charity, but he is thinking of paying off some of his debts related to his previous political campaign, and give some to charitable institutions if he wins the jackpot.

Zubiri also promised to give about P500,000 each to members of the Senate media as “balato.”

Escudero, for his part, refused to count on winning before it actually happens. He said he will deal with how to spend the jackpot money after he wins.

Escudero’s numbers are a combination of his birth date, and those of his wife and their children. He bets on lotto three times a week.

Revilla also chooses the birth dates of his wife, now Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado, and their children, as his lucky combination.

Meantime, Liza Gabuyo, assistant general manager for online lottery of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, said there are 28,989,675 possible combinations in the Grand Lotto game.

Gabuyo said that makes the odds of hitting the game’s jackpot one in more than 28 million.

“It really is a game of chance,” Gabuyo said in a recent interview.

The newest of all lotto games of the PCSO, the Grand Lotto now has a jackpot prize that is the biggest in the history of all lotto games of the agency.

Gabuyo said the projected pot money in the draw tonight is already at P375 million. She said this amount could even increase, depending on ticket sales.

No lucky bettor won the P354.6-million jackpot prize in Monday night’s draw, which had the winning combination 12-14-30-43-46-51.

The continuously increasing pot money in the Grand Lotto surpassed the P347-million jackpot in a Super Lotto draw in February 2009 that was bagged by two lucky bettors.

The PCSO launched the 6/55 Grand Lotto as a replacement for the Power Lotto game. The Grand Lotto uses a single panel system and bettors can choose six numbers in any order from 1 to 55.

According to Gabuyo, more bettors tend to try their luck as the jackpot grows.

Some even place higher bets, which, according to Gabuyo, do not necessarily increase one’s chances of winning. - With Reinir Padua