Solon urges PCSO to resume interactive mobile lotteries

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) should contribute in generating funds for the country’s fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) by having interactive mobile lottery games.

Ang Probinsyano Partylist Rep. Ronnie Ong, who serves as vice chairperson of the House committee on games and amusements, said that PCSO should step up and contribute in generating funds for COVID-19 response.

While recognizing that PCSO has to shut down its land based lottery activities such as the Sweepstakes,  Scratch-it and Small Town Lottery, Ong said that PCSO can still hold fraud-free interactive mobile lotteries.

“Interactive and mobile lottery games can actually be very timely at this time because of the ECQ.  Many people are in their homes doing nothing. Instead of wasting money on some online games to fight boredom, they can actually support PCSO lotteries as their way of contributing in the war effort against this unseen enemy,” Ong said in a statement.

Ong said the PCSO can deploy  interactive and mobile apps where people can play Sweepstakes, Scratch-it and other forms of lotteries.

Transactions can be done using payments schemes such as credit cards, Paypal and virtual wallets like G-Cash, SmartCash, PayMaya and WeChat, the lawmaker said.

The lawmaker said that the government is losing P3.75 Billion per month or P125 Million per day after PCSO stopped its operations in compliance with the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the Luzon region.

“Even if we can only generate half of the P3.75 Billion monthly revenue of the PCSO, we will be able to provide adequate relief of a lot of communities especially in areas which are on full lockdown. Let us be realistic about the ECQ. Most of the people take their chances outside their homes because they have no food to eat,” Ong said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has placed all of Luzon under an enhanced community quarantine in March as the number of people infected with the new virus swells. The lockdown was supposed to end mid-April but Duterte extended it until April 30.

READ: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1261987/metro-lockdown-extension-seen