SENATE PANEL PROBES INTEGRITY OF LOTTO GAMES

THE Senate Committee on Games and Amusement on Thursday continued its investigation into the integrity of lotto games of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

Senator Raffy Tulfo asked the PCSO during the hearing about some people saying a person was planted to place a bet on all combinations.

Tulfo mentioned a scenario wherein machines in an undisclosed location can be employed to generate bets in a matter of hours to cover 14 million combinations. 

“Ang sinasabi ng ilan, meron kayong plinanta na tao para tayaan ang lahat ng possible combinations. Ginawa niyo ‘yun, P280 million ang ginastos. Fourteen million combinations, napakatagal ‘yon kung tutuusin. Now ang sinasabi ngayon nila, possible naman daw ‘yon, especially na itong 6/49 ay pinanalunan sa online,” said Tulfo who presided over the hearing.

The senator said the jackpot prize from the prize fund reserve raised doubts among the bettors. 

“Pwedeng manipulahin ‘yung machine na para magkaroon ng automatic sequence betting na in a matter of minutes or hours, kaya nang matayaan ang lahat ng numero,” he added.

PCSO general manager Melquiades “Mel” Robles denied during the hearing that they manipulated the result of a recent 6/49 Grand Lotto Draw won by a single person.

“We don’t know about that massive betting.  I assure you, you can never manipulate. Even I can bet. Definitely madami ang tataya kung malaki ang jackpot,” Robles said.

Robles said none of the winners in the lotto games that the PCSO augmented by huge amounts for its Christmas and New Year draws placed bets on all combinations to win.

“Our records show na hindi naman po binetan ang lahat ng combinations on the day po na tinamaan,” he said.

The PCSO head explained that this also applied to all the recent winners.

In a Senate inquiry last week, Robles admitted that the viral photo of a recent P43-million lotto jackpot winner was poorly edited.

Robles claimed that it was edited to conceal the identity of the winner, which raised doubts and suspicions from the public.