Koko Pimentel on lotto: Frequency of wins, multiple winners fuel suspicions
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Senator Aquilino Pimentel III has filed a proposed resolution seeking a Senate inquiry into the “integrity and trustworthiness” of the lotto games of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
Pimentel on Wednesday filed Proposed Senate Resolution No. 253 days after 433 bettors won the jackpot in the 6/55 Grand Lotto draw on Saturday night.
“The common criticism levelled by the public against the lotto is the lack of transparency. Since the identity of the winner is not revealed, the people are suspicious whether the conduct of the lottery is above-board,” Pimentel said in his proposed resolution.
“Also 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 into the list of winners,” he added.
GMA News Online has sought comment from PCSO but it has yet to receive any as of posting time.
“The frequency of hitting the jackpot and the presence of multiple winners despite the low probability of winning (from 1 in 5,245,786 in the case of 6/42 Lotto to 1 on 40,475,358 in the case of the 6/58 Ultra Lotto) heighten the suspicion even more,” Pimentel said.
Pimentel graduated with a degree in mathematics before he entered law school and became a lawyer.
PCSO officials have said that having 433 jackpot winners in its October 1, 2022 Grand Lotto draw was a “natural occurrence” and that there were no irregularities, although it was unprecedented.
PCSO General Manager Melquiades Robles said the results of the Saturday draw came as a number of bettors held on to the number 9 — considered to be a lucky number — and its multiples.
“Since this is a game of chance, there is no right, there is no wrong, alam niyo ‘yun. In this case nga, tinamaan nila ‘yun. Nag-pay off ‘yung kanilang loyalty, kaya nga lang marami talaga sila,” he said in a briefing.
(In a game of chance, there is no right or wrong bet, you know that. In this case they hit it, and their loyalty paid off, but there were a number of them.)
A total of 433 bettors won the PCSO’s Grand Lotto 6/55 jackpot of P236.091 million on Saturday night, with the winning combination of 09-45-36-27-18-54. —Sherylin Untalan/NB, GMA News
