MEGALOTTO

The current pot for the 6/55 Megalotto in the Philippines as of November 22,2010 is Php 584,829,925.20 or converted to US Dollars that is $ 13,306,710.00, In Euros that would be € 9,942,101.4340 and in British Pounds that would be £8,422,622.0365. Everybody is lining up at the lottery stations holding their tickets like the Holy Grail, mumbling a prayer to bless the card and everybody simply wishing to win the Jackpot prize.

It’s interesting to know what people would do when they actually have that amount of money on hand. The most predictable answer of the Filipinos would be –“ tutulungan ko po ang pamilya ko” –“ I’m going to use the money to help my family”. Which will be 90% true because if a person wins that amount of money in the Philippines and the extended family, friends, neighbors and strangers get wind of it, they will approach that person to ask for help - meaning money for medicines, tuition fees etc or ask for what we call “balato” which is money simply given away.

But what do you do if you actually have Half a Billion pesos in your hand? I will admit that my first thought was of Luxury – of all the places I want to go to, the cars I want to buy and the houses I want to build. Summing it all up, I realized that I probably would not use that all up even if I built two houses, bought four cars and travelled. Then I decided I would set up a trust fund for my child and two other children, some of it would go to my parents (actually, my parents-in-law), two brothers and a sister (actually my own brother, a brother and sister-in-law) and trickles of it would then go to the extended family.

However, some of the stories I’ve heard about Filipino lottery winners  are not too inspiring. One which is quoted from a local newspaper stated that an Php 80 Million winner “gave half (of the money he won) to his parents, who went door-to-door giving P500 each to total strangers…He placed P100,000 bets on cockfights. He now lives in a beautiful house, but can’t pay his electric bills, so the power was cut off.” The American lottery winners are no different and have similar sad stories to tell and most of them ended dead.

That actually takes out the excitement of winning that amount of money.

But, for now I am focusing all my energies at winning the 6/55 Jackpot prize, picturing myself actually handing that check over to the bank and having the bankbook read Php 700,000,000.00 (that would be the total pot when the draw comes) under my name. And then that’s when I’d start to think how I would spend all that money. 

But wait, I think I need to buy a ticket and have a set of six winning numbers first!