Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-G7H
- EDD K. USMAN | Twitter: @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 | Facebook: SDN — SciTech and Digital News
(SDN) — Filipino punters dreaming of turning instant millionaires, and escape poverty, may soon try their luck through the neighborhood sari-sari stores.
And that’s not a hassle thing to do, considering that the ubiquitous “tindahan ni nanay-tatay” (mom-and-pop shop) is just around the corner, just beside one’s house. In every nook and cranny of a community.
And you may even have your own sari-sari store. How easy that can get, placing your lotto bet, as the Philippines, according to news reports citing the Asian Preparedness Partnership (APP), has around 1.3 million sari-sari store operators. No need to go far.
For a mere Php20, a bettor has the chance of winning from a few millions to hundreds of millions of pesos in jackpot money from the lotto games of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
Chair Felix P. Reyes currently is the head and top official of the charity agency.
If plans do not miscarry, the idea, according to Reyes, former Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge, is to have sari-sari stores as betting partners of the PCSO in its gaming systems.
Reyes revealed the plan to members of the PaMaMariSan Rizal Press Corps during a lunch time meeting on July 23 in his office at the PCSO Headquarters, Sun Plaza Building, along Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila.
“Nag present na sa amin (They already presented to us) by using sari-sari store. And then we already just approved that company-owned business chain at Level 2 for this initiative. For you to qualify, you should be the owner of the company with at least 3,000 outlets. So, it means we will deal only with one agent,” Reyes explains.
But not so fast with your bet money yet and going to a mom-and-pop shop to try your luck.
“Walang pang final details. Mga raw proposals pa (No final details yet. They are just raw proposals),” the PCSO chair points out in a separate text message he sent to SDN – SciTech & Digital News on Saturday, July 28.
SDN wanted to know from him whether all PCSO games are to be included in the plan to tap sari-sari stores as betting partners. And how much each sari-sari store earns from the proposed arrangement.
Others in the pipeline for PCSO is a re-visit of online lotto using a mobile application. “We’ve completed a test phase with web application, but it seems people prefer something simpler,” Reyes says.
It can be recalled the PCSO launched a test phase of lotto’s digital version — E-Lotto — on December 15, 2023, aimed to provide safe, modern, convenient and more accessible gaming experience for punters.
E-lotto proved lucky for some, though. A lone punter won Php698.8 million in the charity agency’s E-Lotto platform, hitting on January 17, 2024, Grand Lotto 6/55’s winning combination of 24-50-52-09-51-03. Another E-Lotto winner became an instant millionaire after correctly guessing Ultra Lotto 6/58’s draw on June 21, 2024, with the jackpot at Php150.3 million — 08-24-15-44-04-58.
PCSO has many gaming products, lotteries, such as the popular lotto, Small Town Lottery (STL), Keno, Digit Games (6D, 4D, 3D, and Easy 2), ScratchIt Cards, and occasional Sweepstakes draws.
Each of the lotto games of the PCSO requires only Php20 for each bet on Ultra Lotto (6/58), Grand Lotto (6/55), Super Lotto (6/49), Megal Lotto (6/45), and Lotto (6/42).
If you get lucky against millions of odds of winning — that is, correctly guessed six numbers in any order — then you get to be an instant millionaire and join over 2,000 others in the unofficial PCSO Lotto Millionaires’ Club.
Based on over 119 million Filipinos, helping 300,000 patients still small
Reyes emphasized that the idea to add more betting partners like the mom-and-pop shops — separate from the over 3,000 lotto outlets nationwide with computer terminals — and come up with new games is to generate more revenue for the agency’s charity programs.
“So, we are in the process of accepting new games, and also coming up with other variant, which we hope to launch in the near future, the Lotto Bilyonaryo,” he says.
As the name suggests, a winner in the Lotto Bilyonaryo will become an instant billionaire through a Php100 bet for six numbers that’s also in any order.
“So, all these plans if they materialize, it will go to one direction which is additional revenue,” he notes. “And that’s what is nice here, once we increase our revenue the 30 percent share of charity will also increase.”
He said Lotto Bilyonaryo which may see the light of day next year, is patterned after, but not exactly like, the Power Ball and Mega Lotto of the United States.
A punter chooses five numbers in any order from 1 to 70, and the sixth number from 1 to 26. If a punter gets lucky, guesses all the winning numbers, he or she gets the Php1 billion jackpot. If a draw has no winner, the pot money increases for the next.
For anyone still living under a rock, for every peso revenue the PCSO allocates 55 percent to the Prize Fund, 30 percent to the Charity Fund, and 15 percent to the Operating Fund.
Reyes said the PCSO contributes to the Universal Healthcare for Filipinos, sharing to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) 40 percent of its funds for charity as Mandatory Contribution.
Aside from that the PCSO contributes to non-health related government agencies, among them, the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), Dangerous Drugs Board (SDN), Reyes, a PCSO Board director before President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. promoted and appointed him head of the charity agency, points out.
“Just last year, we were able to assist more than 300,000 (patients), but if you base that on our population it is small,” he says.
According to worldometers.info the Philippines population as of July 28, 2024, is over 119 million, citing the United Nations.
Reyes said they are hoping their plans materialize for the President’s “Bagong Pilipinas” program. (✓)
_________
Note: This article was updated to include more details.