Living life on a game of chance

CEBU, Philippines - Once in a while, when one tries to take a closer look at the community, he may realize that a number of Filipinos — for the longest time — bet on many number games out there, hoping that one day they will wake up a millionaire.

Several Pinoys have already experienced, for sure, buying a lotto ticket, gambling at a casino, buying a jai-alai ticket, playing bingo for money, betting for a cockfight or jueteng, joining mahjong, buying sweepstakes ticket, playing card games and masiao.

These are uniquely “Pinoy” scenarios that suggest the idea that people’s lives may somehow require having to depend on luck or “suwerte” in the local dialect.

Take the lottery game for example. Many “Juan” are regularly seen queuing in lotto stations all over the country. Generally, they are hoping for a blow of fortune that can let them travel the world, pay mortgage payments, start a business or perhaps just have some cash to make ends meet. 

Lottery is a means of raising money through selling numbered tickets and granting prizes to the holders of numbers drawn at random cases.

Quick facts

Lotteries have been existing in the Philippines since 1833. With the support of a private enterprise Empresa de Reales Loteria Españolas de Filipinas, the Spanish Government conducted loterias (Spanish for lottery) to make revenues.

In fact, national hero Dr. Jose Rizal won P6,200 from the lottery in 1892 while he was on exile in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte. He reportedly donated his prize to an educational project.

That particular humane act of Rizal has given the idea on what the lottery can do if connected to charitable and social welfare projects, said Glen Jesus Rada, the branch head of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office in Cebu.

Lotto is just one of the game products of the government controlled PCSO. The agency started the very first online lottery, commonly known as Lotto, in the country in 1995. “At a certain point in the mid 90s, they started to conceptualize the lotto from the lotto games in other countries,” Rada told The FREEMAN in an interview.

He said the creation of Lotto 6/42 brought a new element of entertainment and thrill to the betting public. In 6/42, the player chooses any set of six numbers from one to 42 and wins when these numbers are drawn in any order during the draw date.

The PCSO said the game became a “big hit” despite strong opposition from certain sectors which questioned its legality. But the Supreme Court ruled the new lottery was legal. Later on, various lottery game forms came about such as the three-digit (3D), the four-digit (4D), the six-digit (6D), the Mega Lotto 6/45 the Super Lotto 6/49 and Grand Lotto 6/55.

Based on their assessment, the branch head shared the majority of the gaming public do not buy lotto tickets unless the jackpot prize reaches millions of pesos.

Rada explained that before lotto became famous, first there was sweepstakes, which was being drawn once or twice a year. “At a certain point, tungod sa kadugay niubos ang sales sa sweepstakes mao nga didtong higayona nisud ang lotto kay ang lotto man gud regular ug paspas ang draw.”

In the regions of Visayas and Mindanao, the Suertres Lotto has the highest sales because of the perceived more chances of winning given the few numbers it involves, he said. 

Since the inception of the lotto game, data from PCSO showed that in Cebu Province, there are already 74 Cebuanos who won the jackpot as of April this year. For the whole Visayas region, there are already 233 individuals who got the jackpot prize. 

PCSO’s Rada said they generally have no idea as to how lotto jackpot winners have managed to change their lives after winning. Though, the agency normally asks winners if they need advice on how they should spend the prize money.

He shared a story of a Barangay Pasil resident who became a lotto winner. After winning, this particular person shifted from playing lotto to casino which only led him to bankruptcy.   

Winning in the game may be deemed as "easy money scheme", so too its abrupt disappearance if handled foolishly. "Anything form like that is easy money. Lotto is just practically like that. You invest in this game pero way kasegurohan kung mabalik dayon."

“Though I’m not privy on that area but what I know the office recommends them to invest the money,” he added.

Cebu currently has around 990 lotto outlets. The PCSO official said the province has the most number of outlets in the whole Visayas and Mindanao. The charity generates revenues from sales of sweepstakes and lotto tickets. More than half of the allocation of net receipts go to prize fund (55 percent); 30 percent for charity fund; and the remaining 15 percent is used by PCSO for its operating expenses.

Increase income

The attempt of Filipinos to gamble in lotto or other number games can be traced level of income per capita, an economics professor explained. Per capita or income per person is simply the measure of the amount of money that is being earned per person in a certain place.

“Because the percentage of poverty incidence in our country is still high, we see that people would like to aim a higher level of their income,” said Louie Jay Trapa of University of San Jose - Recoletos. “That’s why they consider betting on lotto as one way to achieve that bisan di siya considered as income gyod.”

As the normal consumer behavior would imply, people will always aim for satisfaction, the professor noted, saying “If wala pa sa atong limit ang atong income para ma-satisfy ta, people always look for ways nga makadugang sa ilang income kay they want to be satisfied in terms of living standards.”

Lotto players should realize that if they join the game, they consequently surrender a certain opportunity cost which is the benefit an individual could have received by taking another action.

Game by luck

Cebu City resident Amy Legaspi, a new lotto gambler, said she has tried recently to allocate an amount to bet on lotto.

"Gisuwayan ra gyod nako kay maayo na lang unta ba ang P10 nako mahimong P20,000, kadako na ana," the 46-year-old woman said. "Nanimpad lang ko bisan di ta sure makadaog."

This is precisely what Trapa said, “This is a game by luck gyod way kasegurohan. You spend on lotto pero ang imong opportunity cost unta you can buy other commodities that you want.”

Having tried gambling on lotto out of curiosity, Trapa realized that people, whether poor or rich, have different intentions in putting their money on the game without an assurance if they win or not.

‘Pinoys are fatalistic’

For a sociology professor, fatalism is the root of this belief among Filipinos. Fatalism is the idea that all events are determined and so inevitable. College Professor Migor De Vivar described Pinoys as people who tend to have passive outlook, resulting from a fatalistic attitude.

“Why will they do hard labor when something about them is certain to happen?” De Vivar asked, referring to winning the lotto as one great motivator of the betting public.

The Cebuano professor further explained to The FREEMAN, “The value of money earned through hard labor and the worth of that which is easily earned -- winning lotto is one -- are the same in relation to the consideration of the end product, and that is, if they are destined to become wealthy, they will become wealthy.”

Trapa, who specializes on basic economics, said players should try to compute their chance of winning the lottery especially if they lack money allocation for the game.

However, De Vivar noted that there is not much concern about the amount of possibility of winning, saying the concern of most lotto players is directed to hoping that something positive -- favoring them -- is going to happen.

This is precisely the driving factor that encourages them to bet despite the very thin chance of winning, he added, noting that “Chance is not an issue, fate is.”