433 First-Prize Lotto Winners in the Philippines... Suspicious Numbers Spark 'Rigging' Allegations

You Have to Match 6 Numbers Out of 55... A 1 in 29 Million Chance

The Philippine Lotto lottery has produced a record high of 433 first prize winners. Photo is unrelated to specific expressions in the article. [Image source=Pixabay]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] More than 400 first-prize winners have emerged in the Philippine Lotto, where players must match 6 winning numbers from 1 to 55.

According to the BBC on the 4th (local time), the number of first-prize winners in the Philippine Lotto last weekend reached a record high of 443. They will share a total of 236 million pesos (approximately 5.7 billion KRW). The winning numbers for this Lotto draw were '9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54,' all multiples of 9.

The Philippine Lotto is similar to the domestic Lotto, where players must match 6 numbers from 45, but the number range is wider, making the odds of winning lower. The probability of winning the first prize in the domestic Lotto is about 1 in 8.14 million, whereas in the Philippines it is about 1 in 29 million.

Cases with so many winners like this are rare. An expert estimated that assuming 10 million participants, the probability of having 433 winners is (0.1) to the power of 1224.

As a result, allegations of manipulation have been raised. Coco Pimentel, a representative of a minority party in the Philippine Senate, questioned the Lotto results and called for an investigation. He told the BBC, "The Lotto is a government-approved business," and "Its integrity must be maintained and protected."

Melquiades Robles, the head of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), stated, "There is no manipulation of the winning numbers," and added, "Filipinos tend to bet on number sequences." Terence Tao, a mathematics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said regarding the occurrence of a series of numbers with distinctive features, "It is rare," but also noted, "Statistically, unusual patterns appear in lotteries worldwide once every few decades."