The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office is determined to push through with its plan to pilot mobile betting to increase its revenues by 10 percent to 40 percent.
At the PCSO Sama-Samang Talakayan at Linawan forum, board of director Ramon Ike Señeres said the agency would start to offer mobile application betting in “2019 and up, may be next year.”
“The income here is good. One does not have to go to an outlet to place one’s bet. We are looking into it. We have to go beyond the short message system [or texting],” he said.
“However, there are legal issues we have yet to review [or settle],” he added.
Arnel Casas, Gaming, Product Development and Marketing officer in charge-assistant general manager, said the PCSO was projecting a 10 percent to 40 percent increase in its revenues with its mobile betting system.
“There is still an ongoing litigation. As far as I know, the arbitration is already done. The legal department knows that. I think it [plea] has been elevated before the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court,” he said.
The previous management of the PCSO rescinded its deal to provide text-based system on nationwide lotto betting with a private contractor, prompting the contractor to file breach of contract raps before the arbitration panel that ruled in its favor.
According to Casas, the PCSO’s appeal was already submitted for resolution.
“One of these days, we hope to conduct another bidding after finalizing the terms of reference so we could already purse our mobile betting system,” he said.
“It is part of our wish list or dream to launch an advanced technology and the best practices in the world. However, we could not do that in the past due to legal impediment,” he added.
The PCSO could generate a “conservative” increase of 10 percent to 40 percent in its annual income once the mobile-based betting is offered in the market, he said.
“The millennials, the yuppies and most probably those who do not want to queue [the long lines at the betting stations] would avail of this new mobile-based application,” he told the Manila Standard.
“Also, we have also conceptualized new games. As of now, I still cannot divulge them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the PCSO has boosted its income to P63 billion, marking 20 percent growth from its revenue in 2017.
The government agency posted P63,557,912,238.39 compared to last year’s P52,982,703,111.04.
Among all the games, the Lotto and Digit Games was the top gainer at nearly P32 billion, noting a 14 percent growth.
PCSO General Manager Alexander Balutan credited the increase to the frenzied Ultra Lotto 6/58 jackpot which had peaked at P1.18 billion after being elusive for months.
The jackpot, won by two winners from Luzon and Visayas, was the highest prize recorded in Lotto’s history.
Small Town Lottery’s earnings also accelerated to an exceptional 66 percent at over P26 billion.
At the same time, Traditional Sweepstakes plunged to a disappointing P4,867,500 from last year’s P22.5 million.
Keno Lotto Express also slipped to P4,397,969,030, down by 17.91 percent.
Balutan blamed Keno’s losses to higher ticket cost due to the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law. The ticket price increased from P10 to P12.
In a press conference, Balutan said the agency would review the price structure to recover from its losses in 2018, especially that PCSO is one of the agencies expected to fund the Universal Health Care Bill which was cited by President Duterte as a priority measure.
Aside from PCSO, other sources of funding are the Department of Health, PhilHealth, Philippine Gaming and Amusement Corporation.
PCSO’s flagship medical assistance program aided more patients in 2018, catering to 528,190 beneficiaries nationwide.
Its funding also climbed to over P8 billion, a 7 percent increase from 2017.
The agency also spent P626,249.20 in medical and dental missions, advancing to a 233 percent increase which supported 9,231 patients.
PCSO was also recognized as the sixth top paying government-owned and controlled organization last year.
In a related development, PCSO, through the Gaming Sector announced on Tuesday that the Board had approved the request of the gaming public to re-implement the P24 lotto ticket consolation prize.
“The Gaming Sector looked for ways where we can get the additional P4 para naman maibalik ito sa mga players. Matagal na nilang request na ibalik, dagdagan, o gawin man lang P24 ‘yung consolation prize,” said Arnel Casas, PCSO Assistant General Manager for Gaming Sector.
The implementation of Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law in 2017 brought about harsh taxes to personal income tax, estate tax, donor’s tax, value added tax (VAT), the excise tax of petroleum products, automobiles, sweetened beverages, cosmetic procedures, coal, mining, and tobacco, including PCSO’s document stamp tax (DST),
Under the new TRAIN law, lottery tickets were subject to higher DST prompting PCSO to impose a new price scheme for Lotto and other gaming ticket prices from P5 to P6, P10 to P12, and P20 to P24.
The TRAIN law also imposed a 20-percent tax on winnings of more than P10,000 from Lotto, Keno, Small Town Lottery (STL), sweepstakes, and other PCSO products.
Apparently, the low tier prize of the fourth prize (when a player gets three correct out of six numbers), happens to be the same as the amount paid by the player which is P20 where bettors can exchange their “winning” lotto ticket for a new bet as this has been the practice for the longest time.
But with the increase in Lotto ticket price from P20 to P24, bettors need to add P4.
Casas also admitted that the P63.55 billion overall PCSO sales in 2018 would be very hard to surpass this year because it became very phenomenal.
He revealed that the Gaming Sector was eyeing the implementation of mobile applications or internet gaming of existing Lotto games this year, especially with popularity of smart phones.