The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has suspended all of its games including Lotto, Instant Sweepstakes, and Keno nationwide after Metro Manila and other nearby provinces were placed under the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ).
PCSO made the announcement in a public advisory posted on its official Facebook page.
“The suspension of gaming operations includes ticket selling, ticket validation, prize claiming and the conduct of daily draws,” PCSO added.
Meanwhile, PCSO noted that the selling of Instant Sweepstakes and Keno tickets “will continue in areas” under the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) and Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ).
The PCSO reminded that health protocols mandated by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) such as physical distancing and the wearing of face masks as cited in Lotto Circular No. 2020-004 should be strictly observed.
On July 22, PCSO General Manager Royina Garma announced that PCSO games will finally resume after months of suspending its operations due to the COVID-19 situation in the country.
Lotto games including Lotto 6/42, Mega Lotto 6/45, Super Lotto 6/49, Grand Lotto 6/55 and Ultra Lotto 6/58 resumed on August 4 while the Instant Sweepstakes and Online Keno resumed on July 20 and July 28, respectively.
Lotto ticket prices have been rolled back to P20.00.
The PCSO also held “catch-up draws” for lotto tickets bought by bettors prior to the suspension last March 17 in July. Resumption of the regular lotto operations were supposed to follow after all the catch-up draws.