The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office is gearing up to introduce new lottery games aimed at boosting revenue, with plans to launch its first lotto game offering a base jackpot of P1 billion by October.
PCSO chairman Felix Reyes, a former president of the Philippine Judges Association, expressed optimism about the potential of the billion-peso lotto game, citing the strong market response observed during their “Handog Pakabog” program last Christmas season.
“Handog Pakabog” featured jackpot prizes of P500 million each for the Grand Lotto 6/55 and the Ultra Lotto 6/58, surpassing the usual starting jackpots of P29.7 million and P49.5 million, respectively. The decision to raise the jackpot during the holidays proved highly successful, generating an additional P800 million in revenue for the PCSO, Reyes said.
For the billion-peso lotto, Reyes explained that players would need to select the correct first five numbers out of 17 options and the sixth ball from a pool of 26 numbers—a format largely inspired by the “Power Ball” lottery game in the US.
In 2023, PCSO reported gross retail receipts of P31.38 billion, with lotto games contributing P18.96 billion and digit games contributing P12.41 billion. As mandated by its charter, PCSO allocates 55 percent of its net receipts to its prize fund, 30 percent to its charity fund, and 15 percent to its operating fund.
The government corporation saw a 7 percent revenue increase to P61.45 billion in 2023.
Last month, PCSO remitted P2.68 billion to the Bureau of the Treasury as dividend contribution based on its 2023 earnings, slightly up from the previous year’s P2.66 billion.
