Metro Manila had the most jackpot winners of the Grand Lotto 6/55 drawn last Oct. 1, said the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
The PCSO posted on Oct. 2 on its official Facebook account the location of the 433 winners who will share the P236-million jackpot prize.
One hundred fifty-two bettors were from Metro Manila, 34 from Cavite, 22 from Rizal, 21 from Bulacan, 21 from Laguna, 14 from Batangas, 14 from Cebu, 13 from Pampanga, 11 from Pangasinan, 10 from Benguet, and 10 from lloilo.
Seven players each from Leyte and Albay also hit the elusive jackpot, six from Misamis Oriental, five each from Davao del Sur, Isabela, Negros Oriental, Quezon, and Zambales, four each from Bataan, Bohol, and Tarlac, three each from Aklan, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Negros Occidental, Palawan, and Zamboanga del Sur.
Moreover, two winners each came from Cagayan, Eastern Samar, Marinduque, Misamis Occidental, Mountain Province, Nueva Ecija, Oriental Mindoro, and South Cotabato.
One bettor from Agusan del Sur, Antique, Aurora, Biliran, Bukidnon, Camarines Norte, Capiz, Ilocos Sur, Lanao del Norte, Maguindanao, Nueva Viscaya, Occidental Mindoro, Samar (Western Samar), Sorsogon, Southern Leyte, Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Tuguegarao, Zamboanga del Norte, and Zamboanga Sibugay.
These winners will each take their part from the whopping Grand Lotto jackpot worth P236,091,188.
Lotto prizes exceeding P10,000 are subject to 20 percent tax pursuant to the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law.
With that, each winner received at least P400,000.
On Monday, Oct. 3, the winners have claimed their winnings and “revealed” their winning tickets at the PCSO Main Office in Mandaluyong City.
“Nagbiyahe po ako ng sampung oras upang makarating dito at makuha ang aking napanalunan. Tumataya po talaga ako ng pattern 9, pattern 8, pattern 7 at pattern 6 sa loob ng maraming taon at ako’y nagpapasalamat na ngayon ay napanalunan ko na (I traveled for 10 hours just to get here and claim my winnings. I have been betting on patterns 9, 8, 7, and 6 for many years and I am grateful that I was able to hit it now),” said an anonymous winner with an interview with PCSO.
After the unusual number of lotto winners caught the attention of the public, PCSO General Manager Mel Robles held a press briefing on Sunday, Oct. 2 and said that the jackpot combination was “not impossible to predict,” thus the big number of bettor who guessed it correctly.
“We have found nothing wrong, in fact, it’s a natural occurrence na may mga nag-aalaga at maraming nananalo kapag tinamaan ‘yun (We have found nothing wrong, in fact, it is a natural occurrence that some are taking care of specific numbers and many win once those numbers get drawn),” he added.
However, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said on the same day that he is seeking an investigation regarding the “strange and unusual” lotto results.
The winning combination was 9-18-27-36-45-54 which according to mathematician and OCTA Research Group Fellow Dr. Benjamin Co “does not even factor in the probability that all the numbers chosen are divisible by only one number – in this case by 9. That’s more rare.”
“You can form 27,988,675 combinations from 1 to 55 where each combination is a unique non repeating number in no particular order. That means your odds of winning is a bit 0.00000345 percent. Or you have to play 289,896 combinations to increase the odds of winning even 1 percent,” Co added.
“To have 433 people betting on a similar number may be more likely considering how people choose numbers. Some would prefer birthdates while others, something in sequence or with a divisibility factor,” he continued.
“It leaves you asking – by chance, how can 433 bettors be right on a sequence of numbers divisible by a single number? Your imagination is as broad as the chances of winning the lottery,” Co said.