PCSO: Grand lotto generated P1.4 B

MANILA, Philippines - The 6/55 Grand Lotto craze that spread across the country generated a total of P1.4 billion in bets as people hoped to take home the biggest-ever jackpot of P741 million.

According to Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) operations manager Arnel Casas, betting increased as the jackpot grew bigger after 86 draws.

Casas noted the brisk sales in lotto tickets when the jackpot reached P500 million.

He said the heavy bettors came from Luzon where lotto ticket sales increased close to the deadline for betting.

At closing time, the total sales of Grand Lotto nationwide reached P266,638,620, Casas said.

The Grand Lotto is drawn on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Casas said jackpot prize for tomorrow’s Grand Lotto would be P30 million for a bet of P20.

“We will expect increase of sales as the jackpot prize rises,” he said.

A lawmaker, on the other hand, noted the renewed public interest in lotto, which he described as the “new antidote” to jueteng, an illegal lottery game.

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo said the PCSO should also increase the prizes for the minor games to attract more interest.

Castelo said increasing the prizes in minor lotto draws and other number combination games will open a “policy window” that would address the proliferation of jueteng in the countryside and promote the state-run Small Town Lottery (STL).

The STL is the alternative numbers game offered by the PCSO in the effort to attract more bettors than jueteng.

The STL, however, has been branded as a front of jueteng operators in their illegal gambling operations.

Castelo earlier proposed the PCSO should “democratize” the huge lotto jackpot by also increasing the prizes of winners of lower winning lotto combinations.

Castelo proposed the prizes for minor winning lotto combinations should be increased tenfold.

Instead of the cash prize of P150 for three correct numbers in the six-digit Grand Lotto, Castelo said the prize should be P1,500.

So if the bettor correctly guessed five numbers, the prize at stake should be P1.5 million from P150,000.

“If Malacañang claims to have found the antidote to jueteng because the grand lotto jackpot reached the P741 million and which showed more and more bets flowing in, then I suggest that we maintain the momentum by fully democratizing on minor winnings under the 3, 4, 5 winning number-combinations,” Castelo said.

Castelo noted only one winner correctly guessed the winning six numbers of the Grand Lotto for the historic jackpot of P741 million.

“Thus, if PCSO can give that quantum of cash to just one person, how much more equitable if proportionate cash schedules be also allotted to the three, four, and five winning number-combinations, respectively,” he said. 

Castelo said increasing the prizes in the minor combinations would eat up only 19 percent of the whole jackpot.

“If PCSO each rewards P20,000 instead of a measly P2,000 to a field of say, 2,000 bettors who got the four winning number-combination, then a lot of poor people will be benefited and yet it only entails an amount of P40 million equivalent to only about 19 percent of the jackpot,” he said.

Castelo said the scheme would be a self-correcting mechanism on the highest allowable jackpot ceiling. 

When new prizing schedule for minor winnings is allotted, it will automatically control the jackpot ceiling, he said.   

Castelo said the single strongest stimulus why so many people placed their bets on lotto instead of jueteng was the sheer amount of jackpot prize.

“But if government really wanted the illegal jueteng out of the competition, then the most viable formula is to fully expand and thereby democratize the highest social and economic benefits one may derive from patronizing lotto,” he said.

And if his proposal is implemented, Castelo said lotto would become more attractive than jueteng. “Let this (lotto) be the new antidote to jueteng,” Castelo said.

Sen. Vicente Sotto III, meanwhile, called for a congressional inquiry into the forthcoming transfer of the PCSO from its headquarters at the Quezon Institute compound to the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) complex in Pasay City.

Sotto claimed receiving numerous complaints and letters from several PCSO employees raising their concern over the impending transfer to the PICC.

Sotto said the employees are clamoring for an investigation and the reasons for the planned transfer.

Sotto pointed out the current PCSO headquarters at the QI compound has as much historical significance as it has more ample space to accommodate its various charitable projects.

The decision to transfer the PCSO to the PICC complex has generated some resistance from various sectors, including former chief Manuel Morato.

Morato led the PCSO employees in questioning the planned transfer which they argued would cost the government more money and would make it harder for the beneficiaries of the PCSO’s assistance to access.

“There are reasonable grounds to look into allegations of the PCSO employees that their transfer from a spacious, secure and client-friendly environment to the PICC will be to the disadvantage of the general public,” Sotto said in filing Senate Resolution 300 calling for the investigation into the transfer.

PCSO chief Margie Juico, however, defended the planned transfer by saying “it is all about safety, of protecting people’s lives.”

Juico said the current PCSO office’s structure at the QI is already in danger of structural collapse.

Juico also disputed the claims of Morato that the transfer would cost the government more money because it would be paying P2 million a month for rent of the 5,000 square meter office space in the PICC. - With Marvin Sy