Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) General Manager Mel Robles said they will investigate the observation raised by Senator Raffy Tulfo regarding a person’s name on their list of official winners of the state lottery, who appeared to have won 20 times in one month.
Robles denied that the PCSO can manipulate the results of lotto games amid the allegations and questions of senators about the frequency of winning lotto games. He said that it is not hard to investigate this matter and they would verify the information.
Robles also assured lawmakers that they cannot influence the lottery, explaining that they have a system, which makes it impossible to manipulate the results.
He added that they have a surplus fund to augment the lotto prizes and they did it as a “marketing campaign” to encourage the public to place their bets for higher prizes.
Tulfo is leading the investigation into the integrity of PCSO games.
He received a list of winners from PCSO, and what caught his attention is one bettor who won 20 times in just one month. Another person won 10 times in one month, he added.
Robles said he took exception to the allegation raised by the senator.
“Definitely, more people will place bets because of the higher jackpot prize. That was really our objective, to bring in more bettors,” he said.
Apart from the list of winners, the PCSO also submitted to the Senate panel the documents on the lotto games, including the tax records of the jackpot winners.
The senator questioned why there is always a winner in every draw.
Before there was e-lotto, it took a month or two before someone hit the jackpot, he said.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline PCSO to investigate ‘extremely lucky’ bettor