PCSO sees first lotto billionaire in a few months

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) expects to award the first “lotto billionaire” if nobody wins the 6/55 Grand Lotto online lottery draw in the coming months, with the prize yesterday hitting more than P330 million.

“If the current trend continues and nobody hits the jackpot for the next few months we are looking at the first lotto billionaire,” PCSO general manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II said.

He was referring to the rapid increase in ticket sales for the Grand Lotto that has soared from an average of P30 million per draw to P102 million last Saturday.

Rojas said the bigger the jackpot the more players buy tickets and thus more money would go to the PCSO charity fund, which is intended for the medical needs of poor patients.

He said if the jackpot breaches P1 billion in the next months it would be the biggest lotto jackpot since a balikbayan won the P741-million jackpot late last year, after a nine month lotto frenzy nationwide.

The P741-million jackpot had generated total ticket sales of P4.1 billion.

Despite the 28.9 million-to-one odds of winning the Grand Lotto, more bettors continue to line up at lotto outlets nationwide to try their luck.

The Grand Lotto is held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, while the Mega lotto is drawn on Mondays and Wednesdays, and 6/42 during Saturdays.

A PCSO accountant who requested anonymity said that there are two- to three-million regular bettors of the Grand Lotto who maintain certain number combinations that represent important dates in their lives like birthdays and anniversaries.

Records at the PCSO show that more than 1,600 lotto players have won major prizes ranging from P3 million to P741 million since the online lottery game was launched in 1995.