PCSO: Rumors of lotto fixing not true

PCSO general manager Jose Ferdinand “Joy” M. Rojas II FILE PHOTO

Lotto fix?

“Not true,” the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) said in a statement on Friday, brushing off allegations of “ghost” or nonexistent winners for Monday’s Grand Lotto 6/55 game, which included a solo win for the nearly P250-million jackpot prize.

The controversy started when a Facebook post dated April 9 on the Filipino’s Patriotism page displayed an image of alleged game results on what looked like an official PCSO stationery, with the agency’s logo, showing no winners for the P249,841,572 jackpot.

The results also listed only two (and not 25 as reported) bettors who won the P169,410 prize after getting five of the six-number combination right.

The post has been “shared” or circulated in the social networking site more than 6,000 times. It has garnered more than 700 “likes” and nearly 500 comments, mostly from netizens expressing their outrage at the apparent discrepancy.

PCSO’s appeal

But the PCSO appealed to the public to “not easily be swayed” by such unconfirmed reports.

“In fact, the winner, a 59-year-old female private office worker of Muntinlupa City, came to the PCSO on Thursday, April 10, with her youngest child and presented the winning ticket,” read the statement from the office of PCSO General Manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas II.

“After validation through the PCSO’s lotto machine that it was genuine and that her favorite bet numbers, 05-21-27-28-39-42, matched the 6/55 jackpot winning numbers, 39-21-42-28-05-27, her prize was processed and handed to her about an hour later in the form of a check representing the lump sum amount of P249,841,572, the total jackpot prize for 6/55 on April 7,” the statement said.

The agency challenged the public to check with the lotto outlet from where the winning ticket was bought: Triple Lucky Stars on Washington corner Pio del Pilar Street, Makati City.

The agency explained that the circulating document was a “ticket facsimile result” from the Pacific Online System Corp. (POSC), one of two service providers for the PCSO’s lotto operations. The other provider is the Philippine Gaming and Management Corp. (PGMC).

It was PGMC which sold the 6/55 winning ticket. POSC had no jackpot winner for the April 7 draw of 6/55, the agency said.

“PGMC and POSC have separate systems of their respective hardware and software for the lotto operations. PGMC has the International Lottery Totalizator System Inc.; POSC has the Scientific Games Inc. and Intralot. [But] only the PCSO announces the official winning combination and number of winners through its live telecast with PTV-4 daily and its official website,” the agency said.

“The PCSO hopes that Filipinos will not be easily swayed by allegations without first checking with the charity agency,” it said.

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