Pacific Online sets P100-million budget for text lotto

MANILA, Philippines - Pacific Online Systems Corp., the exclusive lotto system provider in Visayas and Mindanao for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), is taking lottery to the next level with the use of text or short messaging service (SMS) and eventually the Internet and other hand-held devices as well as iTV.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Pacific Online said it is setting aside P100 million for its capital expenditures and software license fees to jumpstart its text-lotto project as mandated by the PCSO.

Pacific Online and counterpart Philippine Gaming Management Corp. (PGMC), the lotto system provider for Luzon, were authorized by the PCSO to develop and implement a suitable plaftorm which will allow betting on the PCSO’s lottery games through the use of SMS of mobile phone companies.

By allowing betting on the lottery games through text, the PCSO as well as Pacific Online and PGMC, expects to widen the reach of its lottery games, thus, opening a new avenue by which additional funds for its various charity projects will be raised.

Willy Ocier, chairman and president of Pacific Online, said: “We will work closely with mobile phone operators to enable the PCSO to raise more funds for charity through the use of this technology. Mobile text lotto will take us to the next level. We are very excited about the potentials that mobile technology presents. The main beneficiaries are the poor and the needy.”

Ocier said the company mobile lottery will only be the initial phase of efforts to expand the reach of PCSO’s games as the hardware and software system that Pacific Online will be acquiring will not only support text betting but it will also be upgradeable to support other alternative channels like the Internet, other hand-held devices and iTV.

PhilWeb Corp., an online technology and gaming firm owned by the group of former Trade and Industry Minister Roberto V. Ongpin, is also planning to offer mobile lottery games either alone or in partnership with others.

Lottery has become a popular instant game as more and more people dream of winning the lottery amid these trying times. Last year, lottery sales in Visayas and Mindanao rose 18.5 percent to P7.69 billion from only P6.49 billion in 2008.

Pacific Online attributed the strong lottery sales to an aggressive terminal rollout which increased its total betting network by 16 percent to 1,748 as of end-December 2009 from only 1,500 the previous year. The growth was also driven by record jackpots during 2009 which further lured more bettors into the numbers game.