THE Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) on Tuesday made it clear that the recent price adjustment on its ticket price on two of its lottery games will also bring higher consolation prizes unlike in the old system where prizes are fixed.

Speaking during the weekly Bulong Pulungan news forum at Sofitel, Jose Ferdinand Rojas, PCSO general manager, noted that aside from doubling the jackpot for lotto 6/42 and 6/45, the agency also made the second and third prizes flexible and players could win higher amounts compared to the old system.

Rojas explained that PCSO has adopted a pari-mutuel system for the second and third prizes for 6/42 and 6/45 lotto games where prizes reflect the total sales pool for a particular draw.

Under the new system second prize for the 6/42 lotto game could yield as much as P25,000 compared to fixed P20,000. For the 6/45 or mega lotto game the PCSO can give as much as P50,000.

Second prizes for the Super lotto and Grand lotto games have also been raised from the fixed P56,000 to P70,000 ad P150,000 to P200,000 respectively.

The PCSO also implemented new prize rates for the third consolation prizes: Lotto 6/42 from a fixed P500 to as high as P1,000; Mega lotto 6/45 from P600 to as much as P1,500; Super Lotto 649 from P1,000 to as much as P2,000 ad Grand lotto 6/55 from P2,000 to as much as P3,000.

The third prize is given to players who manage to get four out of the six winning numbers in lotto draw.

As for the fourth consolation prize the Lotto 6/42 will remain at P20 while 6/45; 6/49 and 6/55 will gave P40, P100 and P150 respectively.

Rojas issued the clarification after receiving information that the new adjusted lotto ticket prices has caused confusion among lotto players.

According to Rojas the changes were introduced to substantially augment the PCSO charity fund and increase the number of people benefiting from the agency.

Rojas explained that for every peso earned by the PCSO 50 percent will go to the prize fund, 30 percent will go to the charity fund and 15 percent will be used for the PCSO operations.

At present that PCSO is serving an average of 600 persons a day for its individual medical assistance program (IMAP).

Rojas added that the PCSO would also be introducing new games on the second half of 2013 in order to expand its assistance program all over the country.

The PCSO has doubled the ticket prices and jackpot prizes for the 6/42 and 6/45 lotto games last May 17.

Jefferson Antiporda