EARNINGS of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) from its gaming operations in 2019 dropped a whopping 30.74 percent or about P19.5 billion to around P44 billion compared to some P63.6 billion in 2018.
The data was disclosed in PCSO’s financial statement which was part of the 2019 audit report released last September 17 covering the state lottery firm’s transactions.
PCSO’s retail receipts figures showed a sharp dive from all four major sources – lotto, keno, small town lottery (STL), and National Instant Sweepstakes Program (NISP or ScratchIt) — while showing some uptick of earnings from sweepstakes and “Peryahan.”
The biggest decrease was recorded from the lotto operations which posted some P31.9 billion in 2018 but sank to just about P21.4 billion last year — a difference of P10.6.
Small town lottery which earned P26.1 billion in 2018 only managed P19.9 billion last year or a drop of P6.2 billion.
Keno sales dipped to P1.8 billion in 2019, a whopping 60.14 percent decline from P4.4 billion in 2018.
ScratchIt which brought in P1.15 billion in 2018 slumped below the 10-figure mark to settle at P961 million.
On the other hand, Peryahan recorded P68.77 million in 2019 from just P495,032 the year before. Also improving was the sweepstakes take which amounted to P11.25 million last year compared to P4.867 million in 2018.
WHO WON?
Government auditors raised questions on the non-disclosure of details on the P622.393 million prize fund expenses on the STL even if it was required in the revised implementing rules and regulations (RIRR) for the small town lottery.
Under Section 18 of the RIRR, the authorized agent corporations (AACs) of the STL were supposed to hold the prize funds in trust and on behalf of the PCSO, and to pay prize winnings under conditions of its license to operate.
“For CY 2019, the total amount of P622.393 million was recognized as prize fund expenses from STL operations. It was noted that the said expenses were based only on the revenue allocation rates… the prize fund expenses were not supported by documents/information to prove the existence of valid winners,” the audit team said.
The Commission on Audit said the summary of prizes and winnings charged against the prize fund was submitted to the branch operations sector on Feb. 5, 2020 but the audit team was not furnished its own copy.
Auditors said their verification revealed some AACs did not submit reports while a few of those who submitted were not included in the accounting and recording of STL prize fund transactions.
“The excess prize fund computed at the end of the year is supposed to be returned by the concerned AAC to PCSO. Verification however disclosed that none was remitted at the end of the year,” COA said.
