Small Town Lottery is PCSO’s biggest source of revenue

Small Town Lottery (STL) is the biggest revenue source for state-owned Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

A state sanctioned lottery where players bet on two numbers, the STL was ordered closed by President Rodrigo Duterte for three weeks due to supposed massive corruption.

During a briefing at the House Appropriations panel on Friday, PCSO General Manager Royina Garma revealed that the STL generated the biggest share of P12.6 billion or 52% of PCSO’s revenue in January to June this year.

Lotto games followed are the second biggest source of revenue for the PCSO at P10.9 billion or 41%.

Its other revenue sources are Keno and the Sweepstakes.

On Thursday, Duterte lifted the suspension order on STL operations on the condition that authorized agent corporations (AACs) or STL agents comply with the stipulations under the STL agency agreement with PCSO.

Also, the agents must be religiously remitting their guaranteed minimum monthly retail receipts, and have paid a cash bond equivalent to three months of the PCSO’s share in the Guaranteed Minimum Monthly Retail Receipts on top of their existing cash bonds.

The agreement between the PCSO and the STL agents will be automatically terminated when any of the conditions under their franchise or any other conditionality without prejudice to other remedies that the government may exercise.

Garma said that the minimum remittance of STL agents should be at least 30% percent of the voting population where the STL branch operates, multiplied by P4.50, then multiplied again by 30 as the  average number of days in a month.

She assured the public that the PCSO will continue to improve on the collection of remittances from STL agents, considering that the Commission on Audit has flagged the state-owned corporation for posting P4.6-billion shortfall in Presumptive Monthly Retail Receipts or STL proceeds of December 2018.

Of the P4.6 billion, P2.318 billion dates back to 2017.

Under the law, the non-remittance or under-remittance of STL agents at any given time is ground for suspension, cancellation, or revocation of STL agency agreements.

“Going ahead, hindi na lang voting population [ang gagamitin sa computation ng required monthly remittance]. Kasama na rin po ang economic activity nung area, peace and order situation, saka ‘yung existing games na available sa area, para ma-assure po na makukuha natin ang due sa government,” Garma said.

The PCSO has been very cooperative with the investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation and the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission on alleged corruption in PCSO, Garma noted.

“We have submitted all the documents that they needed,” she said. —VDS, GMA News