200 firms seeking contracts with PCSO for new numbers game

PCSO Chairperson Margarita Juico. FILE PHOTO

Some 200 corporations, some of which are operators of the controversial small-town lottery, have applied with the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) for contracts to run the new numbers game, to be called initially the “Loterya ng Bayan.”

“I’m sure, businessmen are receptive to this new numbers game,” PCSO General Manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II said.

He said the agency still needed to sift through the applications and evaluate the applicants through a background check.

“There are areas where we got many applications. But we will only get a few so there must be a screening process,” Rojas said.

But even if the PCSO was swamped with applications, PCSO Chairperson Margarita Juico noted that some businessmen did not perceive the “Loterya ng Bayan” to be profitable.

“I have talked to several businessmen and I  gave them the IRR (implementing rules and regulations) of the new game before I submitted it to the President. At first, they thought doing business with this would not prosper,” Juico said in a phone interview.

She said these businessmen were hesitant to plunge into the game because of the proposed sharing scheme between the government and the lottery operators.

Juico said the business side was among the aspects that the Office of the President has begun looking into.