Lotto pot to hit P730 million

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) announced yesterday that the jackpot of the 6/55 Grand Lotto online lottery draw tonight is expected to be more than P730 million after nobody got the winning number combination during last Saturday’s draw.

Arnel Cases, PCSO operations manager, said the projected jackpot for tonight’s draw would depend on the ticket sales before the draw.

Margie Juico, PCSO chairman, said the agency’s board of directors has discussed the possibility of making the payment of the jackpot on installment basis because of the huge amount of money involved.

“We are concerned that the winner may not be able to handle his or her winnings,” she said.

She said the possibility of implementing the installment basis for the release of the jackpot is only a proposal but it was not among the priorities of the agency.

Juico said the proposal will be tackled with the move of Congress to pass a resolution that would put a cap on the lotto jackpot to limit the prize to P500 million.

She said any revision of the mode of payment to winners would be subject to consultation with the people who are the stakeholders in the lotto.

Juico said the PCSO would let the lotto game run its course until a lucky player wins the huge jackpot.

She had assured lotto players that the PCSO lottery draws are transparent and are carried out professionally.

The lotto draws are aired live daily on television at 9 p.m. over NBN Channel 4.

A panel of judges composed of private individuals witnesses the pre-draw, actual draw and post-draw procedures.

“In our office, where the lotto draws are held, there are observers from the PCSO and various representatives from the public to protect the integrity of the system. The draws are open to the public,” Juico said.

Liza Gabuyo, assistant general manager for online lottery of the PCSO, said while the Grand Lotto is statistically the hardest to win of PCSO’s online lottery draws, the lotto is basically a game of chance.

Gabuyo said a Batangas businessman won the P134.6 million jackpot last May, which was only the 10th draw after the Grand Lotto game was launched in April 2009.

“While statistical computation shows it (Grand Lotto) is the most difficult to win among all our games, a jackpot was won only on the 10th draw since it was introduced. So we believe it really is a game of chance,” Gabuyo told The STAR.

She said that in the Grand Lotto, a bettor could choose six numbers from 1 to 55. With this, the chance of winning the jackpot is one in 28,989,675.

The odds are slimmer than those in the other national lottery games of the PCSO - 6/49 Super Lotto (one in 13 million), 6/45 Mega Lotto (one in 8 million), and 6/42 Regular Lotto (one in 5 million).

“But these are just statistics. They’re not the (only) determining factor,” Gabuyo said.

Tonight’s draw with a projected jackpot of more than P730 million has become very popular and even people who have not played the lotto in the past, have now placed their bets to try their luck.

Gabuyo said that when they launched the Grand Lotto game to replace the Power Lotto game, they wanted something that would excite the bettors of the lotto games of the agency.

“I think it really is providential that the Grand Lotto game (which is our newest game) is getting a lot of attention from the general public,” Gabuyo said.

“We’ve been helping a lot of indigent people,” the PCSO official said.

Gabuyo said more bettors mean more income for the agency that attends to some 500 Filipinos every day asking for financial assistance. With Reinir Padua