I found this old story unbelievable but it really did happened.
A Ghost story? or a Ripleys, believe it or not story?
Believe it or not this lotto story is a world record with 1326 lotto bettors winning the 2nd Jackpot prize and it happened in a Halloween lotto draw.
Nov 4, 2005
More than P30 million in cash prizes was paid out by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) when a record-breaking 1,326 bettors won the second prize in the Halloween lotto draw.
But that was not the big story yet behind the Oct. 31 lotto 6/45 draw way back 2005
PCSO officials discovered that most of the winners who held lotto tickets containing five of the six drawn numbers had placed bets on six identical numbers: 3, 23, 37, 28, 42 and 18.
What was even more surprising was the fact that those who chose similar combination's simply lifted the lucky numbers from the sample number pattern that was printed as instruction on every lotto card.
"Had they thought of changing the number 18 to 19, the Philippines could have recorded the biggest number of winners who would have divided the lotto jackpot.
But the second prize winners had made the right decision because they would have romped away with only about P12,600 each if the jackpot of P16,257,499.20 was divided among the 1,326 bettors.
Fortunately, six lotto bettors changed the "18" to "19" and found themselves joining the hundreds of individuals who won the jackpot and became instant millionaires. With the winning number combination of 3, 23, 37, 28, 42 and 19, they each became P2,709,583.20 richer.
Estrella, who is one of the signatories of checks for bettors who were able to correctly guess five or six of the drawn numbers, revealed that the biggest number of five-digit winners was more than 400 ticket holders.
"This is a very rare but not as extraordinary as having a repeat of jackpot combinations. I do not recall any lottery that drew exactly the same winning number combinations since the lotto started in the country," he said.
Source:
Manila Bulletin
BEN R. ROSARIO
