PCSO sets minimum jackpot prizes to P89 million for all jackpot-bearing games

The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office set the minimum jackpot prize for all its jackpot-bearing games at P89 million on October 30, 2023, the agency said in its year-end report for 2023¹. The change was made in celebration of the PCSO's 89th founding anniversary, according to Philstar.com².

The PCSO's year-end report states that "the PCSO also set the minimum jackpot prizes for all its jackpot-bearing games to P89 million on October 30, 2023"¹. Philstar.com reported that the top-up applied to the Regular Lotto 6/42, Mega Lotto 6/45, Super Lotto 6/49, Grand Lotto 6/55 and Ultra Lotto 6/58².

The higher floor showed up in draw results within days. On November 6, 2023, a lone winner took the Megalotto 6/45 jackpot of P107,506,074.20 with the combination 13-31-16-01-25-10³. There was no winner in the Grand Lotto 6/55 that day; the combination 33-25-10-14-18-51 would have won P102,584,251.80³. Two days earlier, on Saturday November 4, a bettor who bought a winning ticket in Palawan won P102,254,379.40 with the combination 07-34-11-26-05-06³. GMA News Online described the November 6 result as the second time in a week that a lotto winner bagged a jackpot prize of over P100 million³.

The PCSO reported total revenue of P61,456,027,455.88 from its gaming products in 2023, covering Lotto, Digit Games, Small Town Lottery and Instant Sweepstakes, exceeding its annual sales target of P53.23 billion by 15%¹.

What it means for players

The P89 million figure is a floor, not a cap: it is the minimum guaranteed jackpot for the PCSO's jackpot-bearing games, so a game that has not been won for several draws can carry a prize above that level, as the November 2023 results show³. The change applied across the PCSO's main lotto games rather than to a single game². The PCSO later raised minimum guaranteed jackpots again under its "Handog Pakabog" Christmas promotion, setting Ultra Lotto 6/58 and Grand Lotto 6/55 at P500 million each, and Super Lotto 6/49 at P500 million with Regular Lotto 6/42 and Mega Lotto 6/45 at P100 million each². Draw schedules, ticket prices and how prizes are split between multiple winners are not set out in these reports.

What happens next

The PCSO said it set a conservative revenue target of P70 billion for 2024, a P10 billion increase, and projected P21 billion for its charity fund, P3 billion higher than 2023². The agency also ran a one-year test of its web-based e-lotto betting platform from December 15, 2023, with the application to be available on Google Play and iOS in 2024².