THE COVID-19 pandemic took a big bite off the earnings of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), cutting the state lottery firm’s 2020 operating income to P18.63 billion, or a 52 percent decrease of almost P26 billion from its P44.03 billion profit in 2019.
This is the second straight year that the PCSO saw sharp declines in its earnings after a P19.54 billion slump from P63.57 billion in 2018.
The figures were disclosed in PCSO’s financial statements which were included in the Commission on Audit’s 2020 report.
Based on the breakdown of PCSO’s retail receipts, the biggest loss was incurred by the Small Town Lottery (STL) operations, which fell from P19.876 billion in 2019 to P5.703 billion in 2020 – a P14.17 billion difference.
Lotto, traditionally PCSO’s biggest money drawer, logged the second biggest drop from P21.259 billion to P11.944 billion year on year for a P9.415 billion drop.
Keno shrank to just P407 million from P1.753 billion, National Instant Sweepstakes Program (NISP or Scratch It) from P961 million to P522.4 million, and Peryahan from P68.77 million to P51.13 million.
Sweepstakes, which registered P11.25 million retail earnings in 2019, had zero in 2020.
“The big drop on sales revenue was a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that affected not only the Philippines, but the whole world,” the COA said, noting that Lotto and Keno operations were suspended from March to July 2020 as the country implemented a series of lockdowns.
Making matters worse, COA said several STL authorized agent corporations also closed shop and did not apply for resumption of operations even after restrictions were relaxed during the audit year.
