Lotto sales up by 2.81% - Balutan

LOTTO sales and other games posted a 2.81 percent increase with reported overall sales of P5,384,844,980 in January and February, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) General Manager Alexander Balutan said on Thursday.

“Of all number games, Ultra Lotto 6/58 had the highest reported sales at P861,377,840 with 83.91 percent increase, followed by Super Lotto at P454,712,080 sales with 25.78 percent increase in two months,” Balutan said.

Grand Lotto 6/55 similarly increased at 2.92 percent with P401,667,840 reported sales.

Lotto 6/42 and Mega Lotto had P388,657,760 and P428,712,080 reported sales, respectively, but they were down by 14 percent and 28 percent.

“’ Yung lotto games kasi are jackpot- driven sales. Ina- associate kasi natin ‘yan sa jackpot prize natin. Kapag mataas ang jackpot natin, malaki din ‘yung nagiging sales (Lotto games are jackpot- driven. We associate them with jackpot prizes,” explained Maritess Jose, Division Chief of the Product Research and Development of PCSO Gaming Sector.

Lotto 6/58 had a jackpot prize of P331,971,464 when it was won by two. Jose said jackpot prizes increase after several draws without a winner; while the jackpot prizes of Lotto 6/42 had P49,659,101 and Mega Lotto 6/45 had P45,394,304 only when they were won.

In 2017, Lotto 6/42 and Mega Lotto 6/45 had accumulated P79,806,976 and P147,466,664 jackpot prizes, respectively, when they were won.

As for other games, the 6-Digit had 12.05 percentage increase with P42,824,000 sales, 4-Digit had 6.31 percent increase with P89,013,320 sales, and EZ2 had P1,225,834,240 sales with 5.45 percent increase.

The 3-Digit has the highest sales of P1,492,266,920, but it is down by 11.21 percent compared to its sales last year.

“This is due to Small Town Lottery (STL) expansion. Imagine from 20 AACs in January 2017, we now have 81 Authorized Agent Corporations (AACs) compared last year of the same month,” Jose explained.

In January, the sales of the expanded STL posted P1.87 billion, a 103.96 percent increase from the sales of the same month last year.

“All our funds come from gaming. We rely on the betting public to raise our revenues by playing more lottery games, especially STL. We don’t have appropriations from the government. That’s why we are urging the local government units/office to support STL. We can only give what have,” Balutan said.