AMID suspicions over the credibility of the result of the 6/55 Grand Lotto wherein 433 bettors won the P236 million jackpot, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III filed Senate Resolution No. 253 which seeks to determine the integrity and trustworthiness of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
“There is a need to make sure that the processes involved in the conduct of the lotto games by the PCSO are honest and free from any kind of fraud because they are State-sanctioned forms of gambling,” Pimentel said in filing the resolution on October 5.
“The common criticism leveled by the betting public against the Lotto is the lack of transparency,” the resolution states.
“Since the identity of the winner is not revealed, the people are suspicious whether the conduct of the lottery is above board,” it adds.
Pimentel stressed in the resolution that the success of lotto games “rely on their integrity for the successful raising of funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character.”
The resolution also notes that “the reported lag time between the announcement of the results and the announcement of the number of winners leads people to suspect that this lag time is used to manipulate and insert ‘lucky bettors’ in the list of winners.”
Pimentel said that the recent result of the 6/55 Grand Lotto “is a contender for the Guinness Book of World Records” after 433 winners won the P236 million jackpot.
The resolution noted that there have been several multiple winners in 2022 alone such as the four winners of the P42.9 million jackpot of 6/42 in January, three winners of the P43.9 million jackpot of 6/42 in May, and two winners of the P73.8 million jackpot of the 6/49 Super Lotto in June.
“The frequency of hitting the jackpot and the presence of multiple winners despite the low probability of winning heighten the suspicion even more,” Pimentel said in the resolution.
He noted the probability of winning in 6/42 is 1 in 5,245,786 chances and 1 in 40,475,358 chances in the case of the 6/58 Ultra Lotto.
