PCSO brings back P75 million draw

CEBU, Philippines – In its bid to raise more revenues for charity, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office has revived the traditional P75 million sweepstakes draw with the grand draw slated on September 8, 2009.

William Medici, PCSO department manager for Visayas and Mindanao, said the revival of the P75 million sweepstakes draw is also in line with PCSO’s 75th anniversary celebration.

Carlos Castillo, manager of the PCSO sales department, said charitable groups, associations, local government units or anyone engaged in programs that involve charity may avail of the booklets with the tickets for the draw. Each booklet has 100 shares and each share is sold at P50 or P5,000 per booklet.

But Castillo said the wholesale price of each booklet is only P3,800, thus, the agent or group selling the tickets on retail may earn up to P1,200 for each booklet. Likewise, agents may even earn other incentives from the winning tickets, he said.

Medici said winnings in the September draw may reach up to P116 million. He said that since the lotto operation started in 1996, the gross revenue of PCSO in Visayas and Mindanao already reached P29.9 million.

In 2008 alone, PCSO VisMin has a total revenue of P6,491,334,700 for lotto operations alone. Of this amount, P32,833,008.47 was the generated revenue of Region VII.

Medici said that from 1996 to 2008, 235 individuals have already won the lotto jackpot prize in Visayas and Mindanao, with the total winnings amounting to P4,617,927,378.04.

In the same period, 57 individuals have won the jackpot prize in Central Visayas, 46 of which are in Cebu with majority residing in Cebu City. The total winnings of the 57 individuals have amounted to P1,235,268,217.69.

“Can you just imagine the economic multiplying effect that it goes back to the people because of such winnings?” Medici said.

Region VII has 1,649 operating lotto terminals, 301 of which are in Cebu. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/JMO (THE FREEMAN)