Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office general manager Alexander Balutan said on Friday the Small Town Lottery has earned P9.7 billion in five months, an increase of 93.94 percent compared with the same period last year.
“Our STL earnings has reached P9,735,591,124.03 billion from January to May 2018,” he said in a press statement.
Balutan also said PCSO had hit P25 billion mark as of May.
“The overall PCSO revenue already hit the P25 billion mark, P25,833,181,304.10 to be exact, an increase of 27.25 percent, where Lotto and digit games are still at the forefront with P12.5-billion sales, Keno at P2.3 billion sales, and Instant Sweepstakes at P727 million sales,” he said.
While Lotto and digit games earned P12.5 billion in five months this year, its sales decreased at 5.04 percent compared with the same period last year. Keno, on the other hand, earned P2.3 billion, an increase of 10.36 percent.
“We must remember that Lotto and other digit games are jackpot-prize driven where ‘the higher the jackpot prize, the higher the sales’,” Balutan explained.
In 2017, PCSO paid P7.797 billion in taxes to the government. For the first quarter of 2018 alone, it paid P3.5 billion in taxes.
Out of the P51.9-billion overall sales revenue of PSCO in 2017, P15.7 billion came from STL, which is an increase of 143.68 percent compared in 2016.
The PCSO Charter, or RA 1169, particularly on revenue allocation, provides that the revenue of the PCSO shall be allocated to 55 percent for prize fund (payment of prizes), 30 percent for charity fund (various charity programs and service) and 15 percent as operating fund (maintenance and operating expenses).
In 2017, almost 415,465 beneficiaries availed of the Individual Medical Assistance Program, spending more than P8.086 billion.
From January to May of 2018, there are almost 154,000 IMAP beneficiaries, spending more than P3 billion.
“We would like to attribute the increase in our STL revenues to the number of operating AACs, which is 83, compared to 20 AACs in January 2017, and their PMRR [Presumptive Monthly Retail Receipt], and of course to the gaming public who continues to support our lottery and number games,” said Balutan.
STL is a regular game by PCSO authorized by the national government through Section 1 of Republic Act 1169; while AACs are corporations or cooperatives duly registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or with the Cooperative Development Authority, respectively that applied, been duly qualified and expressly authorized by the PCSO to conduct STL in a particular area.
“The expanded STL has provided 309,436 jobs and generated P2 billion a month for President Rodrigo Duterte’s medical program for the poor. Apart from providing economic activity to the province, the established and existing STL corporations provide regular medical mission and educational assistance to their towns and municipalities,” said Balutan.