More of the distrust

Let me start by greeting everyone a Happy New Year! And it sure is a happy new year for someone. The PCSO recently broke tradition by conducting a 6/55 Grand Lotto draw on Christmas Day. Since the lotto games started in March 1995, no lotto draws were held on Christmas and New Year’s Day. They decided to conduct a draw on Dec. 25, 2024, for its 6/55 game with a jackpot prize of ?202.5 million, a play on the incoming year of 2025. And surprise, after only two draws, we have another millionaire. A happy new year for the winner, indeed.

The PCSO does these large jackpot prizes to generate sales. That’s a tacit admission of dwindling sales and diminished interest in the lotto games. There has always been a lingering distrust of how the draws are conducted. Indeed, there seems to be a winner every so often between the five lotto draws the PCSO conducts. Compare this to the lotto games from other countries like the US where it takes months, even a year before they have a jackpot winner. Granted their lottery is harder to win having a variable the local games do not have. Still, it is not uncommon to have a winner in every local draw.

The Senate went as far as to conduct investigative hearings on the PCSO draws after widespread speculation arose from the large jackpot draws of December 2023. It was revealed that a lotto outlet owner invested ?90 million in bet money to hit the ?640 million peso 6/49 jackpot prize last Jan. 16, 2024. Sen. Raffy Tulfo commented, “Nobody in his right mind will gamble ?90 million if he’s not sure that he will… win.” And he is right. Just think, a lotto outlet owner decides to “invest” ?90 million pesos just as the jackpot prize was increased from ?140 million to ?640 million, and he wins. Sheer luck?

For an ordinary bettor, not one who has ?90 million to gamble with, these results would be more than incredible. The PCSO has denied manipulating lotto results. Of course, they would. But one cannot be faulted for thinking the Philippine lotteries are unusual, if not questionable. Questions remained unanswered in the last Senate hearing on the integrity of lotto games in the country. The findings of the Department of Information and Communications Technology did not help at all. They said that during the period of testing (all of seven days) they did not find any reason to say the system is or can be compromised, but they cannot say it cannot be compromised at all, especially after the testing period. Isn’t that pointless?

I have no idea when the next hearing will be conducted, if at all. But the Senate has to get to the bottom of this. I would think PCSO would want to show the public they can be trusted to conduct fair lotteries. But from what has been revealed in the past Senate hearings, it only fueled more of the distrust.