THE “Loteryang Bayan” of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), which is aimed at fighting jueteng and other illegal-numbers games in the country, is set to start next month.
The launch was made possible by completion of a thorough evaluation of and background check on potential operators of the new game who applied last March.
According to PCSO General Manager Jose Ferdinand Rojas 2nd, they have stopped accepting applicants since July 15 this year and are now checking the background of the individuals and companies to ensure that they have legitimate businesses.
He said that the strict background check was needed to determine if the individuals and corporations who want to be PCSO Loteryang Bayan (PLB) operators have enough experience, knowledge and financial capability to sustain their operations.
Rojas added that besides having a good company profile, an interested operator must have a minimum authorized capital stock of P50million of which P12.5 million is subscribed and at least P10 million is paid-up.
The state-run charity agency is targeting September 8 as the date for the start of the Loteryang Bayan.
The date coincides with the anniversary of PCSO and with one of Catholic Church’s feast days— The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The new lottery game is very different from the Small Town Lottery (STL), which was discontinued by PCSO last March, after it was learned that gambling syndicates were using it as a front for certain illegal-numbers games.
Rojas gave his assurance that the Loteryang Bayan will not suffer the same fate as STL because the PCSO Board had introduced several features that would protect the game from possible abuse.
The PLB will feature different games with a minimum bet of P5, which is almost the same as the bet for jueteng.
The games are EZ2 where bettors will chose a series of two numbers from 1 to 31 with a minimum prize of P2,000; Suer3 where bettors choose a series of 3 numbers from 1 to 9 with a minimum prize of P2,500; and Pares where bettors choose a series of two numbers each number ranging from 1 to 38 with a minimum prize of P4,000 per correct combination.
Rojas said that there are at least 200 PLB individuals and corporations that submitted their applications and are undergoing evaluation.
PCSO will also hold a summit with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, National Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice before September 8 to make sure that the new lottery game will be implemented successfully.
