Grand Lotto pot seen to grow by leaps and bounds

MANILA, Philippines—The jackpot for the 6/55 Grand Lotto may keep on growing by leaps and bounds in a matter of time as interest in the game picks up and the winning combination eludes bettors.

For Monday night’s draw, lawyer Lauro Patiag of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s (PCSO) internal audit department said earlier in the day that the pot likely hit the P125-million mark when ticket stalls closed at 8:30 p.m. His projection was close as the PCSO website showed that the pot hit P124,714,080.

Nobody won the number combination of 25-15-18-34-39-29 on Monday, the PCSO website showed.

“The pot gets bigger because of the increasing number of bettors wanting to take a crack at it,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer over the phone.

On Saturday, the Grand Lotto jackpot stood at P117.5 million.

Usually when the jackpot reached the P100-million territory, it increased by around five to eight million every draw date on the average, the official explained. Numbers for the Grand Lotto are drawn on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

What kept the game interesting is the one-in-a-29 million chance of picking the winning combination for the Grand Lotto, according to Patiag.

Betting habits of players usually dwelt on “low numbers,” which usually refer to one’s age, birthdays, or significant dates found in a calendar, he continued.

Also on Monday, PCSO general manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II disclosed that three solo winners claimed their respective pots at the agency’s headquarters at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

A 62-year-old barangay kagawad (village councilor) from Capiz province won the P10.6 million jackpot of the 6/45 Mega Lotto drawn on April 13. The winner has been betting the birthdates of his five children for over 10 years.

Rojas said the man professed interest in investing in a business.

The following draw date, another man, a newly retired police officer from Lucena City in Quezon province, won the P47.1 million top prize for the 6/42 Lotto, according to the PCSO general manager.

The winner said he began to place regular bets about three months ago, Rojas recalled, adding that the man bought a System 10 ticket.

A 35-year-old entrepreneur who ran a small business in Cavite province snagged the P4.5 million Mega Lotto jackpot on Friday last week, the official said. He placed a P60-worth Lucky Pick bet, which meant that a computer randomly picked the winning combination for him.

Rojas said the winner wanted to expand his business further.