State of confusion with Philippines Lottery

By Simon Wright, Last updated Jun 30, 2023

There is a state of confusion and a myriad of questions being raised concerning the Philippines State Lottery, as 433 have supposedly scooped the jackpot prize on last weekend’s Grand Lotto draw.

With 236 million pesos  ( $4m ) on offer as the top prize, the number of winners has caused Koko Pimentel the  Minority Leader of the Philippines Senate to call for an inquiry.

Indeed the maths behind such a number of winners hitting the jackpot, according to one particular expert amount to 1 out 1 with a further 1,224 zeros!

Commenting on the probability of this outcome being realised, University of the Philippines Mathematics Professor Guido David stated: “I don’t know a name for this number since it is so large. The number of molecules in the known universe has 80 zeros.”

Presumably ecstatic jackpot winning ticket holders for the draw, have also become somewhat dismayed, with their potential $4m life changing fortune actually being worth just north of $9,000, due to the hundreds of winning ticket holders.

To actually scoop the jackpot prize, participants in the Grand Lotto have to select six numbers from a range of 1 to 55, with all six numbers chosen having to be drawn for the ticket holder to hit the jackpot.

However, talk of irregularities occurring with the weekend’s draw have been dampened down somewhat despite the statistical evidence that 433 jackpot winners being highly improbably. As Melquiades Robles, the general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstake Officer implying that people tended to bet on the same sequence of numbers.

Robles further added: “Many have held on to their numbers. It’s not only good to be loyal to your wives and husbands, it’s also good to be loyal to your numbers.”

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