1 of 2 Ultra Lotto winners claims
was the biggest in lotto history.
It was won by two lucky winners from Albay and Eastern Samar on October 14 via lucky pick who guessed the winning combination of 40- 50- 37- 2501- 45.
“Of the P1.18 billion, the two winners will each get P590 million, minus the tax so their final take- home [ prize] is P472 million. The winner from Eastern Samar already claimed his prize. He was accompanied by his relative. While we haven’t heard from the other winner from Albay,” according to Arnel Casas, assistant general manager for Gaming Sector.
From January to September, lotto sales were at P23,672,993,400.
For September alone, the PCSO earned P3,621,641,420.
On October 10, Senate Bill 1896 or the Universal Health Care ( UHC) for Filipinos Act was passed on third and final reading by the Senate.
Approved by 14 senators, the landmark bill seeks to grant every Filipino, even non- contributors to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. ( PhilHealth), access to “quality and affordable health goods and services.”
The bill will ensure that financial issues will no longer be a burden to Filipinos when it comes to healthcare by pooling contributions from state- owned gaming companies such as the PCSO and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
“We would like to assure the President that the agency will work hard to provide more funds for the free hospitalization of patients, especially indigents who cannot afford to buy their own medicines,” Balutan said.
“I want to thank our senators for listening to our concerns and hopefully everything will be fine and the UHC would become a law soon,” he added.
Balutan had directed the agency’s gaming sector to intensify its operations to raise more funds from its lotto products, Sweepstakes and Small Town Lottery ( STL) draws.
Casas reiterated the PCSO’s support to the UHC bill, which seeks automatic inclusion of every Filipino citizen in the National Health Insurance Program ( NHIP).
Once passed into law, the bill would allow all Filipinos to get free consultation services and laboratory tests on top of the services currently covered by the PhilHealth in both private and public health facilities.
“The PCSO supports the UHC bill certified as urgent by President [ Rodrigo Duterte]. The gaming sector is mandated to continuously find ways to improve the existing games and launch new and exciting games to provide funds for the upcoming UHC program of the government and other charitable programs/ projects of the PCSO,” Casas said.