Sen. Raffy Tulfo questions ‘investments’ in PCSO’s lotto winnings

PUBLIC TRUST | Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) General Manager Melquiades Robles and other PCSO officials will appear on Monday, March 18, 2024, in a Senate hearing on the integrity and trustworthiness of the government-run lottery. Sen. Raffy Tulfo (right) questioned instances when bettors who won several times last year did not present their tax identification numbers. (Photo by RICHARD A. REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — A lotto outlet owner in Manila had “invested” P90 million in bet money to hit the P640-million jackpot in the Super Lotto 6/49 draw of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) two months ago, according to Sen. Raffy Tulfo.

Presiding over Monday’s hearing by the Senate subcommittee on games and amusement, Tulfo also claimed there were at least four “multiple winners” who pocketed millions of pesos in prize money for guessing the right winning number combinations in the PCSO’s 3D Lotto game.

READ: Lotto Results Today

He claimed further that the state gaming agency officials released cash prizes to bettors who failed to present their tax identification numbers — which puts into question the collection of the mandated 20-percent tax on lotto winnings.

These incidents, he said, were among the reasons why the credibility of the PCSO’s lotto games had been eroding in the past few years.

“Nobody in his right mind will just gamble P90 million if he’s not sure that he will… win,” Tulfo said at the hearing.

“Of course, he will invest that huge amount because there’s an assurance that he will get back his money in one way or another,” he added.

‘Inside information’ at lotto outlets?

The broadcaster-turned-lawmaker, citing his information, said the unnamed bettor placed bets amounting to P30 million in each of the three lotto outlets he was operating in Manila’s Binondo district.

Tulfo said the winner, whom he declined to name for security and privacy reasons, hit the jackpot on Jan. 16 by betting on “system 12,” which allows bettors to choose 12 numbers from 1 to 49 instead of the usual six-number combination.

According to the PCSO, the bettor took home a total of P640,654,817.60 for correctly guessing the winning combination of 26-33-14-48-06-42.

What made this win more questionable, Tulfo said, was the fact that the PCSO added P500 million to the jackpot prize just a few days before the draw was held.

He suspected that the bettor may have had “inside information” that the pot money would be raised from the previous amount of P140 million.

“While I don’t see anything illegal with one person spending that much money to bet on many possible number combinations, the problem is that P500 million was added to the jackpot,” the senator said.

‘Scheduled’ increase

“It doesn’t make sense to invest P90 million if the prize is just P140 million. [The bettor] invested [that amount] because he will win more than half a billion pesos,” he said.

PCSO General Manager Melquiades Robles did not dispute Tulfo’s claim that a lotto outlet owner had won the jackpot, but he denied that the agency arbitrarily increased the prize money by P500 million.

Robles said the prize was raised to the P600-million mark because there had been no winner in the 15 days.

“The jackpot was not won instantaneously. That’s why the [amount] snowballed and increased,” he told the hearing.

The PCSO official explained that every increase in the top prize of the lotto games is “scheduled.”

READ: Multiple wins in single month? Tulfo questions another PCSO incident

While he acknowledged that several individuals had repeatedly won in the 3D lotto draw—which requires a bettor to pick a three-number combination from 0 to 9—he said those listed as winners were not necessarily the ticket holders but agents they had authorized to claim their prizes.

‘Out of the ordinary’

Citing the PCSO’s own official records, Tulfo cited a bettor who won 35 times the cash prize of P225,000 in the 3D lotto draws, plus P450,000 once in a draw last year—thus collecting a total prize of P8,325,000.

He said another bettor claimed P516,350 after winning 11 low-tier prizes in different lotto draws.

Lawyer Arnold Kabanlit of the Anti-Money Laundering Council told the hearing that it was “quite out of the ordinary” that a person would spend that much money in a game of chance.

“We will still check if [the bettor concerned] has a link to any unlawful activity,” Kabanlit said. “But this is also a traditional money-laundering typology.”