Senator Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III formally sought a Senate inquiry into the recent result of Lotto games by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and made it a contender for the Guinness Book of World records where 433 winners reportedly picked the winning combination of numbers.

Each of the 433 winners will receive P500,000 each.

In Senate Resolution 253 filed last night Pimentel said there is a need to make sure that the processes involved in the conduct of the Lotto games by the PCSO are honest and free from any kind of fraud because they are State-sanctioned forms of gambling and rely on their integrity for the successful raising of funds for health programs, medical assistance and services, and charities of national character.

The Senate’s top fiscalizer asked the Senate leadership to direct the appropriate committee to undertake an inquiry, in aid of legislation, to determine and maintain the integrity and trustworthiness of the PCSO Lotto games.

‘’During the initial years of the Lotto operations, the PCSO was already beset with allegations of anomalies starting with the irregular deal with Phil. Gaming and Mgt corp. (PGMC) -Berjaya,’’ he said.

As recently as July 2019, the Lotto operations were shut down upon order of President Duterte because of allegations of anomalies and corrupt practices on the part of PCSO officials and/or employees.

Pimentel said the common criticism leveled by the betting public against the Lotto is the lack of transparency.

‘’Since the identity of the winner is not revealed, the people are suspicious whether the conduct of the lottery is above board. Also the reported lag time between the announcement of the result and the announcement of the number of winner leads people to suspect that this lag time is used to manipulate and insert ‘lucky bettors’ in the list of winners,’’he said.

Pimentel pointed out that the frequency of hitting the jackpot and the presence of multiple winners despite the low probability of winning (from 1 in 5,245,786 chances in the case of the 6/42 Lotto to 1 in 40,475,358 in the case of the 6/58 Ultra Lotto) heighten the suspicion even more.

‘’In 2017, there are three winners or the P286 million 6/58 Ultra Lotto jackpot in March, and again in September, two winners of the 6/58 Ultra Lotto jackpot of P257 million. In Feb. 2018, there were two winners of the 6/58 Ultra Lotto jackpot of P332 million, and again in October, two winners of the recording-breaking jackpot of P1.18 billion of 6/58 Ultra Lotto . And in Feb. 20, 2020 there were 10 winners of the 6-digit lotto jackpot,’’ Pimentel said.

‘’There have been several winners this year alone - in January , there were four winners of the P42.9 million jackpot of 6/42 Lotto; in May, three winners of the 6/42 lotto jackpot of P43.9 million; in June, two winners shared the P73.8 million jackpot of the 6/49 Super Lotto; and the recent result of the 6/55 Grand Lotto is a contender for the Guinness Book of World records where 433 winners reportedly picked the winning combination of numbers,’’ he added.

Last Oct. 2, Pimentel found ‘‘strange and unusual’’ the recent result of the PCSO Grand Lotto draw wherein 433 bettors won the P236 million jackpot.