Sales of sweepstakes tickets hit record high

MANILA, Philippines - For the first time in many years, sales of sweepstakes tickets hit a record P9 million before the scheduled draw, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) said yesterday.                                                                               

PCSO sales manager Carlos Castillo said 25,000 booklets of tickets printed for today’s draw were sold out by the Dec. 15 closing of sales.                                                  

PCSO chair Maggie Juico said 80 percent of the charity fund raised from the draw would go to the Ephephta Foundation for the Blind.

This would be on top of the quarterly financial support for the foundation.

The first prize winner takes home P3 million while the second prize winner gets P500,000 and the third prize winner, P200,000.

Two fourth prize winners get P75,000 each.                 

Share  in ticket sales

PCSO records showed that from January to June 2010, distributors of Ins-tant Sweepstakes tickets remitted some P72.4 million as PCSO’s guaranteed share in ticket sales.                                                                                           

From July to December 2010 period, PCSO’s guaranteed share in tickets sale is expected to reach some P106.1 million.                                                                

The Instant Sweepstakes, launched in 1987, was patterned after a game in the United States, which contributed $476 million to the US Department of Education.                       

The game is projected to raise an additional P27 million for the PCSO charity fund this year.