Topic: The PCSO Lotto is shrouded in doubt due to the picture of the winner shown (Read 667 times)

That's true, we don't believe anymore to their announcements. It's just sad that these huge amount of money are going away in a legal way while those behind it doing it illegally. They really know how to do some back jobs within the law and the people can't do shit about it. That's really an effin* up system that we have nothing to say but just rant with our words and nothing will happen and even with this senate inquiry, they can't do anything with it. Many even just think that it's like all for the show just to show it to the people with the media that they're acting or doing something about this anomaly.

Most Filipinos no longer believe when they announce a winner in the news, they carry in their minds the deceptions that the PCSO is doing to the people, not yet proven but as strong as everyone that there may be fraud going on, the government do not take action even though it has been reported several times for investigation, because there is a high probability that they are complicit in the movement of the PCSO.

Just to give an update about this crazy consecutive wins that has happened in the PCSO lottery. Crazy millions not just in peso but in dollars. So, the PCSO has submitted the names of the winners in the senate as per this report by GMA[1]. Honestly, it's crazy that this kind of lottery issue have been brought to the senate inquiry and that is because whoever are involved behind these massive wins, there's a bigger fish or official/s that's behind it.

[1] PCSO submits names of lotto winners to Senate panel

Oh, just this day there's another lone bettor that has won around P5.9M or estimated $105k.
~> Quezon bettor wins Php 5.9-M Lotto 6/42 jackpot

There is no doubt that some may real winner but the situation of having consecutive winners with the biggest pot, that's crazy and dubious. Right now, there's also the winner of P45M winner or approximately $800k. And again, since the news about these jackpots are posted on social media of news and current affairs for every channel, the reaction of everyone is just making each other laugh but obviously the sarcasm is there about it's the PCSO who has won again.

Many kabayans are going to bet no matter what the issue is but, it's not also going to be removed in the minds of everyone that PCSO is doing something shady even with or without any investigation, proven or not.

They are already under investigation, we will know what the investigators will found out. Judging on the Philippines in terms of corrution, I must say that it's one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and corruption does not only happened in politics but also on government agencies, especially this agency that are handling billions of funds for the lottery.

People started to question the credibility of the draw, but as long as there's no result of investigation yet, they will still continue to bet whether through over the counter or online which is what we called the e-lotto.

This may be possible but the government officials of this country have a serious history of corruption. Some winners may just want to stay low-key and the whole big-check thing is often for the show. But with all the trust issues and scams going around, it's hard to take things at face value. It's a mix of personal choice and a general lack of trust in the system that keeps people guessing.

Yes, because the results of the editing have become a question mark and doubts for people, I also cannot accuse any official of being corrupt in this case because there is no complete evidence for the accusation, but for a big win, security is needed so that no crime is committed. experienced the winners, I was doubtful because of the OP but this shows the pros and cons also with the photo whether there are corrupt officials involved or not.

Yes, that's true because this issue and the accusations are baseless, relying solely on photographic evidence, it's true that not all governments that have access to finance are corrupt countries, I agree with you that we can't make accusations from just one sided point of view, It could be true that the winnings are in accordance with PSCO procedures so that the winner's identity is kept secret to protect the winner's safety from criminal acts.

I think the background that was edited was the winner's house so they needed to edit it in a room, but it wasn't very attractive for other people to see, which ultimately raised a lot of doubts and question marks. then OP made it a topic of discussion here. but whatever it is, it comes back to each individual's view. 

It's not shrouded, it's a show of unfettered corruption that's not investigated or stopped by the authorities because they're part of the bottom line that benefits from all of this. I guess they already know that there's no backlash against the Filipino people that they're not afraid to do even this crazy display of corruption. From what I've heard, they're excusing this mishap as a way to disguise the identity of the winner but from what I've recalled there's no proof of the winning ticket that was presented so it's definitely a fake win so they can takeaway all that money for themselves.

Oh, they do have a lot of money, it just so happens that they're a government agency and government workers are hilariously underpaid, much lower than the minimum wage in the country so that's not really an excuse that they're not paying the right amount for their employees, they just don't want to because they want to cut costs as much as possible because they're "budgeting" the taxpayer's money when that's not really the case even if they deny it.

You said it right, or maybe the one who did this wanted to share something indirectly, maybe he did what he shows up to be notice and now
there's controversy circulating inside the agency.

We can't tell what the possibilities are but who knows? maybe this person who edited the picture wanted to bring this anomaly in public.

Now, that there's issue and there is investigation that circulating around, we might know what's the truth behind this edited picture
and who are those behind it.

Yup! That was aired on the news the last time, funny to think that they have a lot of money but can't afford to hire a professional digital and photo editor, even a high school student nowadays can even edit clearly than their editors. Seems like they don't have one, knowing that they are one of the richest governement agency. They literally make fun of themselves, I don't know if it's intentional so that they can be talked about more on social media or what. Well, until now most Filipinos still don't believe that there is a winner of the winning jackpot prize because if there is, it will resonate on social media and everyone will recognize who the winner is.

On a corrupted country then you should really be that anticipate that justice wont really be something that fair or would be served up equally. This is why the government or these institutions
are really that too confident on doing shit things because they do know that they could really that be able to get out easily or something that do talks that they can pay up everyone
just to keep their mouth shut up. This is why even this shit edited photos surfaced out and get tons of criticisms but sooner or later this one would really be just simply be
that forgotten or would really be  that simply be that people just moved on because there's nothing that they can do with this but rather just simply sit
and continue on what they are doing.

At first glance I thought it was just a normal picture but after reading the OP's post and see the " edited " word, I look at the pic again and noticed something strange in the woman's pants. Yet, I'm still not sure if it's truly edited or not, since I can sometimes see a picture like this which are not edited. But if it came to their own mouth that it was really edited, then fine. What can we do? At least they gave out a valid reason for it. That should make the people who criticized them to be quiet now.

The winner might be covered already but editing it will make her identity more concealed. I'm no way of defending them but this issue alone is not a solid base to say that they are really corrupt. And I believe that not all governments who has access to money are corrupt.

It is what it is for sure nothing will be change even if there's investigation going since for sure the officials there already know how to handle any investigations since they are expert in that field. For sure they have lots of reason regarding on the controversy against them. Especially on Philippines the law is so slow so expect that senators doing investigation on that case is just doing grand standing so that their name became looks good since people would think they criticize those lottery officials.

Better for poor bettor not to take any chance to bet on rigged lottery since they are just wasting their money their while those corrupt officials enjoy what they are doing and they just wait for the jackpot price to go up again then repeat this manipulative results what they commonly done.

It wasn't the first time that they've edited a winner's photo. But this time, it has draw a lot of attention because it's like the entire circus that we're seeing going down.

It's hard to believe whether they are real winners or not. Because one possibility is that they've been hired to portray as winners so that people won't find it suspicious. And it's also possible that they've been briefed already on what to say and what kind of story that they're going to tell inside the senate hall in front of those senators and investigators.

Well, PCSO just admitted that photo was intentionally edited for security purposes but the only problem here is that the editor seems too confident of what he did to that photo that draws the whole nations attention. It's like removing the background of the main photo and then changing it with another one. As a result it looks funny can create doubts. 😅

They are not thinking when they post that image in the public, and their actions to have a positive effects ends up having the opposite, and now they will have to face the consequences and answer all the out cry of the public regarding the real winner and they should explain everything now as they are in scrutiny by the Senate itself.


The real winner has claimed it already, it could be in lumpsum and it's good to hear. And as what we expected,


https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/content/894652/raffy-tulfo-asks-pcso-for-names-of-lotto-winners/story/

So maybe in the next hearing, the real winner will come up and tell the whole story?

If we're going to analyze it and apply logical thinking on it, it is highly improbable that we get to see straight winners of 690million pesos in less than a week. And even last year, there have been bunch of winners with high amounts. Let's just wait for the investigation but I hope that it won't also get affected because of how much the money is going on and sad to say that corruption in our government seems to be a normal thing for every citizen, we just hope for the best. Too bad that it's been just noticed lately and I think that if not, we'll get to see more of these winners. Poor bettors, keep hoping that they might win it someday but little did they know, everything is already automated and set.

There's a real winner. It's just that in that case on this topic, it was suspicious especially that the jackpot was being raised and the timing is critical. It's a tactic to attract people to bet more. I don't know if PCSO are thinking properly and they should anticipate that posting that pic will really raised some questions.

Regarding that lotto winner that still got his money after being ironed, he should just be thankful because it's clear on the lottoery terms that the winning lotto ticket should be properly in its 100% proper state when claiming the money. But as report says, he still got home millions. Not bad at all even that person did some mistake.

not sure if he was charged with plunder.
but Manoling is too good. he will share with whoever is necessary to share money with so they are going to be working and protecting each other's backs. the current chairperson must have been greedy and took the money for the few only.

but never in my entire life have i seen or known someone who actually won sweepstakes in our country. the one on tv who ironed his ticket got his money after several years but there must have been some arrangement behind the scenes that he only got a partial amount.

Well if money talks then maybe they can pay this guy to be quiet? We know that everyone can do anything in terms of money now, so it's possible that they can do it or even worst. Remember what happen to the Philippines as well with those e-sabong? there are a lot of individuals who disappear or maybe killed.


Exactly, maybe they are in a hurry, or they think that Filipinos will not recognized that something is odd on that picture. And yet they released it to the public and it was obviously a wrong move in their part. But I doubt that the heads are going to roll on this one. Although it has been investigated, perhaps they will just shuffle the position of those who are involved here, IMHO.

Oh man, I can see this is fake. Where once was no window, there's a window. And all those boxes in the background changed. I don't mind her handing the win to her twin sister, but the walls is just sloppy 3/5

Joking, good job!

I don't know why they'd go to such lengths to hide the real winner. Isn't it much easier to simply make her pose in a hat and glasses? Nobody is going to recognize her anyway unless she wants them to and she will want them to. Imagine you live next to a neighbor and she suddenly changes her car, remodels the house, throws a party... People are going to suspect she won some money. Or is she going to act like she's poor now and never use any of it in public, just invest and hold it for kids and such? That's safe but money's meant to be spent, or you're getting raped by inflation.

I suppose that is some lottery state and also here we have a state lottery.The problem there in your country I don't know but in here every draw of the winning ticket runs live on TV and it is mandatory for the winner to claim the winnings next week in TV,maybe this is bad for privacy yet that is how it is setup here,of course the maximum amount here is 100.000 EUR or a 80 square meter apartment and the price is not in those values like 800.000 EUR or along those lines.I think if the lottery providers want to promote their lottery as genuine and with huge amounts the real time video or a TV show is the best way to go about this.

Obviously, it was edited. Their explanation says that they did it to hide the identity of the winner which indeed makes sense however the way they act upon their purpose isn't professional. How many times an individual won the lottery? Why is this the first time they made it too edited? They could just blur the face of the winner or alike actions that wouldn't turn it to some sort of a joke. They have money in the first place to hire someone to do it the 'right' way. I understand why people are mad of what happened; many are frustrated to win such huge amount and some are even betting for decades which are enough reasons to take things seriously. What they did is pure insensitivity, I think.
Will really be something huge. This lottery has been running for decades and if this will be proven with cheating intentions, then for sure other winners will also be questioned. Let us think of how many people are dreaming to win the jackpot that they spent their money and time with, to be made fun of. What if other winners aren't real? Where did the money went if that's so? This will again be an issue concerning how bad the situation is in Philippines when it is about corruption.

That's is the very point on why majority of us think that it could be a fake person or there is a fake winner with the way they edited the photo itself. And people quickly realized it but it's too late for the institution to offer an apology as they have been judge by the public already. So the point that they've been mock and ordered to explain to the Senate what really happen or if there is a real winner.

The only one that can proved that is the person who claim the winner ticket. But his life will be in jeopardy if he goes to the public because admit it or not, everyone is a freeloader if they know who won the the lottery because it's a big money. So I doubt that they can force the person itself to surface. Anyhow, let this be a lesson for them in editing, just blur the face or hire some professional editor as I know that Filipinos are one of the best in this field right now.

correct me if I am wrong but wasn't that guy got charged for plunder and was arrested?

probably trying to be creative, and yeah, I agree, a simple censoring or blurring would have been more than enough and people would not have been suspicious about it, also putting out a disclaimer for the reason of blurring/censoring would help too.

They did make out such reasoning about telling that they are trying to protect the winners? Then why they would really be doing such act on where they do placed up an edited photo?
Havent they been able to think that it could really cause up that much chaos when it comes to real time feedbacks and insights of the public? I dont know on whats up into their minds
on why they are really that making such move considering that it would really be bringing out that tons of questions or even people would be laughing about this edited photo.

They are really just indeed making themselves laughable because just like been said that even a young kid would be able to tell that this is just an edited.
They better keep quiet and dont make out such foolish act on placing or sharing up an edited photo as if those things are real because peoples eyes
will really be that too sensitive whenever they do see something off or odd. So its a normal reaction i could say that they would really be doing such thing.

Of course it's fake. You can see that her clothes were painted on. Why would they even change her dress and everything? Why not simply blur the face, or make her wear a Guy Fawkes mask. That would've been funny.

I'd say the win was real, but they made a picture and someone was concerned about the safety of the winner or something and some idiot decided to photoshop it and it came out looking like a joke. Like this whole thing was faked. The person responsible for allowing an inexperienced person to edit the photo and post it should be fired because it makes the whole operation look unprofessional.

We netizens have a wrong impression when something is being edited especially when it comes to winning and money, the bettors want full transparency they know the stake they want the money to be won by bettors like them and not by a syndicate, they could have announce that they edited the picture upon the request of the winner for his protection and the betting public will accept that, because if they won the jackpot they will also request that their identity be hidden.
They have undermined how the public is thinking, the manager should apologize to the betting public, they created a big mess, anyway, they will learn from this lesson and they will come out with a much better way to announce the winner.
Editing should be out of their option there are a lot of innovative ways to announce the winner.

it's funny the Senate is now interested in the money that is from PCSO, they used to just ignore Manoling Morato faking wins. why do they have to edit in such as manner when they could just blur the face of the person. the previous winners were never even shown to the public but because they seem to be encouraging everyone to try buying tickets, they are marketing sweepstakes so now the spotlight is focusing on them.

with this investigation, they now have to share the money with the Senate since Bitag will be hiring PI to find out the truth.

I've seen this news but I didn't really follow it. anyway, the image is clearly edited but as long as it can be verified and proven that someone actually won I don't see anything wrong if the image is edited. From my point of view, the winner is trying to hide her identity which is very understandable as we all know the possible dangers they could face if their Identity is revealed.

That is the point. If the winner didn't want to be recognized, there shouldn't be the need for taking any pictures at first place. That would be much more legit than sharing an obviously faked picture on social medias to justify a winner who might not even exist. The story is so absurd that it became funny after all... Now despite investigations and every other political procedures going on, people should just stop playing on this lottery for their own good. There are so many gambling offers available on the internet nowadays that this local lottery can be totally forgotten by Filipinos without any prejudices for them.

Anyway, don't expect anything from the government and politicians, under the risk of wasting precious time of your life waiting for a justice which may never come, because corruption is permeated through all those spheres of power.

Mate, don't take him seriously. It's just a lame excuse. It's either he's a puppet or he's the one pocketing and embezzling people's money. I am not the one who's saying it directly but the pulse of our countrymen that I see in social media is mostly pinpointing him as the mastermind of this. Well, he's the general manager and can control everything on PCSO.

Instead of covering the identity of the winner, they're using this as probably part of their tactic to swindle people's money.

You said it right, the main reason is the protection and safety of their lives. But look at the rich businessmen in our country, they're public figures.

I just hope that this senate inquiry isn't just a show.

Honestly, this should have been long overdue but because of the attention that these lottery winners(?) have taken through social media. I guess that the senate has taken a peek on it.

A winner from E-lotto online something that adds up the doubt from those bettors, now, that the senate is really eager to know who's that girl
and if there's a connection with her and those corrupt officials inside PCSO.

It will take some time as PCSO needs to reveal her real identity and one of the senator who wanted to know the truth is willing to hire private
detectives to know the connection if there's something behind.

A serious matter that being use for memes though it's important to know if that's for real or not.

The general manager's statement is very surprising, what do they mean that they are not good at editing they have millions of budgets, don't tell us that they don't have a decent editor or they don't have one, even a grade 4 student can do better on editing, the senate should continue with the investigation, there is a winner in another lottery and its a huge amount over $12 million, let's see how they are going to hide the identity of the winner if the public asks for proof.

I already posted that they should just cover everything because the outlet where the winner bet will announce that the winner of that huge amount bet on their outlet but of course they have no way of knowing who is the winner.

This thing is happening because the culture is very different in a third-world country, compared to the 1st world country, in a country like the US you can claim your prize and show it on social media and mainstream media, and the winner can still walk in the street as if winning millions is just natural.

In a third-world country, you have to change your identity for fear of being targeted by bad elements or people with bad intentions and they are conniving with crooked cops

This is what we are, we just make fun of some controversies even if they're serious because we can't do anything with it. The officials are actually the laughing stock on this matter but they're just trying to defend on it and the general manager even said that their agency(PCSO) isn't really good at editing and that's not a matter because they're just trying to hide and protect the actual winner. I am waiting for the senate inquiry if they're going to be firm on their investigation on this one and if there will be corrupt officials that will be caught on this unusual high prized lottery that can be part of the guinness. 

If a company or lotto organizer had to go the extent of embarrassing themselves by using a fake picture of a winner, then it means that there is no winner in the first place because if there is a winner, and he wanted to remain anonymous to the public, there are better ways to go about it than faking this picture, where the editor who created the picture did a very bad job. It is very disgraceful, because the fake picture just exposed that the lotto is also a fake and should be avoided. In some places, if there is really justice, these lotto officials deserve to answer to the law.

There are better ways to present the winner without resorting to taking a picture and editing the picture such as covering the face and the body of the winner, they don't even have to show anything because the outlet where the bettor made his bet will confirm it, now by editing the image people will think that everything is a setup the manager already apologized, its a lesson learned that they should not resort to editing because editing is very easy to expose because the netizens have a very good eye when it comes to editing because people are already uploading edited pictures on social media so they can easily tell if a picture is edited

Now the picture has become a laughing stock and the lady become a meme just look on these pictures.

We understand that they are protecting the identity of the winners that's why they should do some counter measure so they can assure the safety of the winner. But for doing those things like presenting a edited picture of the winners it creates a huge trouble to them since many are convince that they are just manipulated the result and the money is been corrupted by those officials. In this case where there answer regarding on the issue is not convincing I would advice to my friends there in Philippines not to gamble on their national lottery since I believe the system is rigged and they can't get any return since it will always in favor with those officials.

Glad there's a Senator  rise up the issue and now they are tackling this topic and hopefully Filipinos can get a proper resolution regarding on this case then they can show to people that they can still trust the lottery system in Philippines.

Well according to the news in this ARTICLE¹, that the picture was intentionally edited poorly in order to conceal the identity of the winner. Additionally, parts of the edited picture was taken from random images across the internet (google images) in order to really cast doubts as to his/her identity.

Personally, I find it amusing that people are even talking about this. If I were the winner, I would definitely prefer my face to be poorly edited (like the one happened currently) in order to fully conceal my identity. Be reminded that even the clothes you wear and the color of your skin may be identifiable by your friends/relatives if they were posted and unedited.

Lastly, this is all for personal safety and security. There have been rumors about the genuineness and legitimacy of PCSO announcing winners with strange patterns in the past. While this may be reserved for another discussion, I fully believe that the person that won here is true and real.

---

1 https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2024/1/18/PCSO-viral-photo.html

They do think that it might be resolved out that kind of suspicions to those bettors but rather it did make things even more worst. Its better that they shouldnt have made out such exposure
or decision on letting the public do see that image. They would really be getting bashed and would really be having those tons of questions if this is some sort of joke or not.
They did really destroy out their credibility and just like on what most people been saying that there would really be some trust issues on the time that they would really be
making those bets into those lotteries on which there's no such thing about fairness and transparency on which we know that this is something crucial on this one.

Not posting the picture is better than editing photos that would only make the agency suspicious. Philippines is tagged as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, so people would easily thought that there's something wrong with this, and that people inside have pocketed millions of winning already. I think this was already called in the senate, and investigation is happening now. Hopefully they'll dig deeper, like a lifestyle check of the employees especially the officers of the agency so they will be caught if they are doing something illegal.

This is obviously edited photo as winner probably wanted to stay hidden. I personally understand it well, its not possible to win and be recognized in my opinion. People around you would directly start asking for money. I suppose its best to stay hidden. Also I don't think its a proof to corruption. Officers working for lottery wouldn't want to be involved in such situations because huge money is involved with lottery. Risky for their lives.

Exactly! well you got the main problem here, that's true that the country is corrupt and they even make us fool even if their actions is very obvious, even a child can identify if it's edited or not. There has been some news on this issue recently. Other government officials spoke to the general manager of the PCSO and their explanation was, they did it because they were protecting the image of the winner, but you can see on their faces as they were interviewed that they were covered up and obviously lying. So sometimes I don't really believe that when they announce that someone has won the jackpot prize, we think they have stolen or pocketed the money of the people who bet on the lottery.

looking at the image of the hat and mask, it is very clear that it has been edited, we can see it by enlarging the image and I am a little confused because this has several factors due to the editing of this image.
the first motive might be that he is a regular bettor who gets a big win so he doesn't want bad people to see him get big money which could threaten his life so when he wants to publish the lotto winner he wants his photo to be edited.
the second reason could be that he is a corrupt official and when he wants to publish his identity he has to ask the lottery to cover his face.

It's a little confusing to investigate this case further because the most appropriate confirmation is that we have to hear directly from the owner of the lotto.

On a corrupted country then it could really happen but this one is really that seeing to be clear as day on what they are really that doing.They are really just that believing that people would really be that fool enough to believe on just showing a picture or image of a winner.? The worst is that the image is a fake and edited one. They are really that making people too low for them not to make out any reactions.
For sure there would be no bettors on lottery would really be that be making bets ever again if they would really be continuing this shit.

I dont know on whats up into their minds on how they've decided on publishing out that image without even trying to rethink on what would be publics reaction into this on which
it would really be getting once they do expose it out on which i dont know on whats into their minds but surprisingly they did really finalize
on letting it public on which they are really that making themselves laughable.

And we all know that in our country, corruption is just around the corner specially with this administration and it seems the the country is back to it's old self. Anyhow, yes they have admitted that its edited and a poor one. They could just have blurred the images even in our cellphone with built-in apps that can do that. But if they hire someone to do that, then it's a poor job. Now there is a doubt as whether there is a real person behind winning that huge amount of money. And I don't think that Filipinos is good at hiding, specially if you won big. There are a lot of "Marites" (only Pinoys know this meaning  ), and sooner or later they will uncover if this women is indeed amongst their neigbours.

That's obviously edited. And even the organization has already admitted that it is indeed edited. And they seem to have a valid excuse: to keep the winner's anonymity. But I don't understand how editing is relevant. After all, the winner is already covered all over.

The doubt as to corruption has solid basis. Government officials having access to money have all been corrupt. If they are stealing money even from small projects at the expense of the project's obvious quality, why shouldn't they steal huge amounts of money that is just to be given away to unknown and unidentified individuals? That would be much easier to steal. If they've moved heaven and earth just to steal from carefully audited government funds, why would they stop themselves from stealing this as well?

With that move from PCSO, they are now being questioned and this controversy will create doubt with how the lottery are being managed,
if the person is for real, they can take a picture and they can simply hide the real face.

But with this editing thing, that really bring the attention and now being summon inside the senate, not sure if how they can enlighten
the people here and how they will provide their explanation about it.

It's going to be an in-depth investigtion as the amount of the pot money is really huge.

I get that the winner's identity must be protected otherwise they will be risking their safety but the team could've just done the typical blurring or mosaic-ing instead of having a dress-up simulation lmao. I mean, posting a selfie with the supposed winner doesn't necessarily prove authenticity anyhow.

I looked at articles about the past winners and it looked normal so I imagine it did not get the same attention as the recent picture.



https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1189840

Maybe the editor was trying to be funny lol even my grandma can blur a picture well.

It's from the Philippines, and I'm from the Philippines, so I'm aware of the news. The first time I saw the picture, my reaction was full of curses. I can't believe that the government has no shame in showing this kind of edited picture. I know and the citizens know that the government sometimes or often does corruption and such, but not to the point that they have no shame in showing it, and this is one example. I don't know, but I think this matter has been discussed in the senate hearing, questioning the suspicious action of the PCSO who runs the Lotto in the said country. They are saying that it is part of the protection and security of the winner, but they can't fool people. You can see in that picture that almost all parts are edited, including the hair, facemask, dress, and even the hand and the person itself. I don't know why they need to do editing if they can cover the winner itself or make her wear different clothes. But I know this issue will be forgotten with some time, and that's not new to the Philippines, so yeah, screw the government.

It's an edited image 100%. I just wondered why PCSO would do such a thing if they can just take simply take a pic of the real winner.

I don't doubt the legitimacy of the PCSO lottery but hyping the jackpot intentionally is a clear cheating as it was a form of manipulation.

Try to watch the ongoing investigation of the Senate here and try to conclude out of it.

They don't need to attract other bettors because it's the official lottery in the country, and a loooot of people are betting on the lottery everyday. It's very understandable to hide the person's identity to ensure its safety and security. As for the cheque, it somehow make sense to me if it's not readable in the picture cause you'd see the name of the winner on the cheque. The only issue is editing the photo, making it unreliable when they can do other options when hiding the winner's identity such as providing clothes to cover their face and body.

And the issue with the edited picture is it makes people think that they just hire someone for the picture and there's actually no winner at all. The insiders or the people who work there might be the one dividing the prize for themselves. That's why editing the picture makes a bad impression to the public, especially those people who bet on the lottery.

They cannot just pick random guys and proclaim to be the winner of millions what if out of conscience the guy speaks out, and also the agency can be bribed even if they pay the guy millions he can still ask more in exchange for his silence, or the guy is a kiss and tell guy, like telling this to his friends when he is drunk and the friend create a revelation on social media that could be chaos.


It looks that way, they just hired a guy who has poor editing skills or if they come out with an edited picture they better tell it straight to the public for transparency it's hard when the public finds out, they will have suspicion and this can put the agency's reputation in peril.

It is because it is no use to get mad at these things because no action will be taken. Just this day, there was a hearing on the senate for this matter and the General Manager of the PCSO seems to be lying with all the answers. People aren't mad with these pictures or edited images, what we're mad of is the consecutive winnings of these amounts since last year. It is impossible to see those happen and just a few days of boundary and winners with almost the same amount have been proclaimed. Honestly, what with I am seeing on the social media with this topic, we Filipino's are just making it as something fun instead of getting mad because of the corruption that's too vulgar and the sad and hated thing about it is we cannot do a thing or two with it but also the ones with the powers in the authority can question them. Because normal citizens like me won't be heard.

No, I think everyone has doubts that's why it was raised, and with the social media age, it will definitely get a audience that now the Philippine Senate is involved already and trying to uncover if there is really some "magic" behind curtains and as to who is the real winner from their lottery because the picture itself is obviously doctored and photoshopped.

So two things came into my mind:

1. the result was rigged and they might just pick random people to win, but it's all just front for them
2. there is a real winner, but the way they hide the faces looks very suspicious

The doubt is from among those lotto bettors in our country about the credibility of the PCSO due to a photo they released. In the past, they used to announce only the location of the person who won the jackpot or if the money was claimed by the winner. However, the public has been questioning whether someone has really won a large sum of money. Now, the PCSO has posted a photo of the winner, but it appears to have been edited. Which is really edited based on their statement. If they wanted to prove to the public that there is a real winner, they could have simply covered the person's face. By using an edited photo, they are only fueling more suspicion among the public, which is contributing to the problem.

This looks like an afterthought by the casino to capture the photograph which they will use to prove that they actually had winners from their casino and that were paid and whether this is real or not will not be my concern. However, why would they take a picture of a cheque that did not capture the amount on it and the face of the person. The cheque picture is blonde and gives room for doubt on it. Lottery companies or those in gaming industry know better not to use a blurred picture to showcase their customer's winning because they know their friends and people from him would want to also bet, so it is a chain.

Everyday there's a big winner of the jackpot while years ago, this never happened before.
There's a lot of corruption going on here, and our government agency should initiate an investigation here not unless they are also part of this scheme. This is not acceptable at all and imagine, exposing the winners with their edited photo. The lottery system is another way for a corrupt government to spend the public money for their own interest, this should be stopped or else our country will suffer big time.

Does this doubt come from those who have not yet won? I do understand how people feel about this. Indeed, that problem exists, but for a system full of greed, they can still operate without any hesitation. But I also know people who win a lot of money, and not everyone wants to hide their identity. But in some local cases that I know of, they are all low-income people and luckily, it came to them, the amount of money was too large to help them change their lives (usually worth over $5 million). So I don't want to equate all cases, because no matter what countries there are, there will be good/bad people, so whoever wants to doubt should continue to doubt. Whoever wants to trust should continue to believe.

And that's why everyone becoming suspicious as there are always a winner like every draw and there's no identification if there is a real person behind, just like in this case, they admitted that they have photoshopped it, Lol.

Maybe some Filipino posters here haven't born yet, but in the 1990's a mayor of Manila won a lottery as well,

Lottery investigator wins in Philippines. This is probably one of the earliest investigations in the Philippines as far as a winner in lotto.

Same here! even in the past, in the long time I've been watching the news, PCSO rarely announces the winner and identity of the winner, but recently it seems like the announcement of the winners became frequent which turns out to become suspicious. seems like they are waiting to increase the winning prize and then when the desired value is reached, they will suddenly announce a winner even though there really isn't one. There is not enough evidence to prove the fraud they are doing but it is too obvious, people in our country are not stupid enough to not notice the stupidity being done inside PCSO.

This is really an edited image even if you zoom it out, those lines are way obvious even an experts would agree that it is. It was known that PCSO has lot of corrupt employees and I don't think that they'll be discouraged for this maybe they even steal more money than this one considering there has been lot of controversy before that even involved huge sum of money.

Even a blind person could see that is an edited photo, why can't you figure it out? Even basic lotteries have many checks in place to prevent this kind of insider corruption and it's very easy to prevent. I personally don't have a problem with lottery winners covering their faces, but then again they should not be required to be publicly exposed in any form of media if they choose to stay anonymous. It's dumb to change the background however and surely if the lottery has been operating for a long enough time, they should have a room setup with white walls as a setting for such photos. Is it a requirement of entry into this lottery that an entrant must appear in photos if they win?

it is normal though to hide the identity of the winner. after all that is a large sum of money and she may be an easy target of fraudulent people out there. however, on the note of the image herself, it seems edited to me, even the skirt. so yeah, the image may be fake but who are we to judge, right? if that organisation is publishing such image to the public, maybe they have reasons to do so. so long they are not getting money from your pocket, all good to me.


that is what i was seeing in the picture. the skirt of the woman alone gave it away. if you look it from afar, you can see the difference. however, we really don't know their intentions here. maybe, to hide the identity of the real winner or just pure corruption is going on. either way, we don't have proofs of such doings. so yeah, just let it pass, and maybe in time the truth will come out.

It's really edited,  we can see the big differences of both person, the contrast and hue is very obvious. it's funny because they didn't even hire a professional photo editor to make the fraud they are doing to the whole filipino people more believable.
there are speculations that come out even then, it is always announced that someone gets a jackpot prize but the truth is, there is none, it is also said that maybe only people in the government or employees of the PCSO claim the jackpot prize and it is divided among people who are complicit in the incident.

But its never been that ethical that they would really be showing an edited image on which we know that we are talking millions on here in local currency on which
this is something that needing up that serious approach. It would really be neither that they would really be saying that due to security reasons the individual
did decide not to make some exposure rather than on trying out to show the public some edited picture just to show up some proofs?
You would really be getting lots of criticisms on the things that you've did.

Just like on what rest been saying that this picture or image is really that edited, so its normal that the public would be having that
kind of negative comments and words towards the situation.

But still those things are assumptions and there's no solid evidence but you cant really be able to stop people on sharing up their own negative views about on whats probably happening into those offices.

Lottery jackpots isnt something that could really be easily won considering on the odds or chances on which it is really that close to impossible, but impressively they do manage out on hitting up some winners in
5days -2 weeks time on which it is really just that too short i should say. This is why people who do make out those kind of betting on lotteries would already having those doubt that there is really
something happening behind and knowing that PH is a corrupt country then im not shocked those possibilities is there.

In regarding about the picture then it is really that clear to be fake. You could really be able to see those shades and contrast on which even a non professional
editor or a simple person could be able to distinguish on whats fake or real.

Lol don't get me started with the shenanigan they pulled off last year too where the winning numbers drawn were 3-6-9-12-15-18 and somehow cause a lot of our citizens here in the Philippines are so bought with the lies that the government kept telling them they all turned a blind eye about it.

It's worth noting that our state lottery has seen a massive upsurge in the number of winners with 1-3 players almost every week, a stark contrast to prior bets and raffles that sometimes take months to even land a winner. Not to mention our commander-in-chief being the literal son of the dirtiest politician in the history of the Philippines, who not only stole money but killed everyone who got in his way and declared Martial Law when the country's not buying anymore of his bullshit. So yeah I guess this is a case of the apple not falling far from the tree yet again. He only has a couple years in his term if I'm not mistaken, so it's not like he's going to stay for long in the seat at this point but at the same time we're still looking at a 4 more years of graft, corruption, and utter chaos in the government while the rest of the people in my country die of starvation and unemployment.

That was so bad despite the good intention. Is it required to take a picture of the winner and post it on the lotto's social media? I don't think there is such requirement in lottery offices around the world so I don't understand the editing for privacy reasons. They could have taken the picture for documentation purposes and kept it private.

Nice observations. It is definitely fake, lacking any merits. How can a winner of such huge amount be anonymous with no means of identification, not even the cheque is clear. Under normal climes, she is supposed to become an ambassador of the company, who will be available for advert and possibly part of their foundation. No reputable company will hand over a cheque of this amount to someone on mask. In my country, there is a certain amount you will win in some local casinos that you will be invited to their head office, offered the cheque and a car in front of cameras.

I'm yet to read anywhere that a winner of $800k in any casino is not known, so this is likely a cheap strategy by the company to deceive the public.

I could also remember this news, it's quite unbelievable and with that incident it's already doubtful if they still have that honesty in them.

It's published in the news before.

More than 400 people won the lotto in the Philippines. Some people just can’t believe it


Mybe the Senate would really try to make a serious investigation on this as it's not anymore running in a normal way, it's pretty obvious that there's a syndicate inside just trying to steal the funds of our country. Or maybe the governmnet will think of ways to stop this, since it's not helping the poor, but only making them poor. If they want to raise more money, why not open the country for more foreign investors?

I can even see comments from netizens says "PCSO has the winning streak" and that had me laughing for a couple of minutes in addition to some popular celebrities who also has funny comments regarding that "edited looking" post from the PCSO. It goes viral all over the Philippines and the PCSO is like a laughing stock on the social media right now. PCSO has been linked to some controversial wins even before including those 400+ winners of the jackpot prize and I don't really have any idea if they rigged it themselves or what. I am bettor as well that is why I am hesitant to place bets because of this issues.

The PCSO should fire the guy who edited that picture it's poorly done they could have put on a long robe and used the facemask and a brimmed hat so when they take a picture they don't need to do editing, this editing creates an impression that they are fooling people that there is a winner
It's good that the Senate opened this up to clear the suspicious of the betting public, I don't think they will lose their reputation people will continue, the temptation that one picture can change your future


Here is the full story of that controversial picture and the hearing in the Senate
https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/content/894623/pcso-admits-poor-editing-of-viral-lotto-winner-photo/story/

It looks like they were just cooking everything as if no one would gonna win the jackpot and everything was just their deceitful act to make the people believe that someone actually won it but in reality, it was not. Those people think they can fool their fellow countrymen when they are now exposed to countless technologies and software on the internet and they think a picture such as this one will gonna be ok for the rest of the people to believe that the jackpot has already got. People should really take heed of this because this is a sign that they are just wasting their money and they are not really getting that huge prize with this kind of scam.

Actually its important to know if its real or not but we don't have any capabilities to know the real situation happening there since they are very controversial regarding on each result shown.

I still remember the past result where there are 433 people win and that rise up some  discussion about how rigged the lottery system in Philippines 433 people win in a lottery this one is really a record breaking in history of lottery in Philippines.

And now that? they release a seem edited pic of a girl claiming his winnings for sure there's a lot of people there still doubting about the result since to many people suspected that lottery result there is always manipulated in favor to those officials on that agency.

Confirmed! That Picture has been edited.

It was personally confirmed by the General Manager of PCSO, Mel Robles, that the picture of the winning woman in the 6/42 draw with a prize of P43,882,361.60 in December 2023 has been edited.
Robles admitted that they changed or edited the entire appearance of the woman so that her neighbors wouldn't recognize her. Robles even apologized for their "poor editing."

Because of this, suspicions among netizens have grown stronger that the PCSO fabricated the winner in the said draw they posted.

Courtesy | RTIA

The picture is viral and the netizens are tagging the administrator of PCSO the lotto governing body, but this is not something new to the lottery system in the Philippines has been questioned many times but so far they have maintained its reputation.

The netizens are quick to check for the flaws because we have a lot of coders and online designers who are betting in the lottery, it looks malicious but like what others have mentioned they intentionally edited it because they want to hide the identity of the winners. After all, it's different in the Philippines once people know you are a lotto winner people will envy you and you may even become a target of bad elements or the lotto ask that it be edited to protect his identity.

I don't think people will lose interest in betting in the lottery because of this issue, majority of the people believe the lotto ticket is their ticket to get out of poverty and change their destiny, people will eventually forget this and will still bet especially if the prize becomes huge.

It was a big win from playing the lottery that the woman got. We don't need to know whether it is a real or a fake image, but of course the casino tries to hide the identity, including the face of the winner, from the public. This is to prevent crimes that will cause problems for the winners, which is something the casino has done well. They try to protect their winners, which is a normal thing the casino gives. And even if it's an edited image, that's fine, too, because the public doesn't need to know who the winner is. They can only keep buying lottery tickets and still hope to win the lottery game.

What is the motive behind this. This is the question that I ask myself as I scrutinize the picture. Even a "blind" person can tell that the image is fake. I know so people would fall for this foolery but they cannot fool everyone. Government officials are supposed to exemplify the highest form of discipline, transparency and accountability. Where they can't what image are they portraying to the public as well as scammers who would pick up the cue from them. I will keep my notifications on with the hopes that in a few day the officials of PCSO Lotto will publish a press release refuting the picture or maybe an excuse that they were hacked and the hackers uploaded that image to deceive the public.

In the region I stay in, state-sponsored casinos are highly regulated and they will be shutdown in a heartbeat with their operators arrested and charged to court by the federal agencies with they try to spin some sort of bullshit like this.

Given her security and private life, I believe it makes sense that they edit the PCSO lottery winner. Not everyone wanted to be exposed to receiving such a large amount of money, where she might receive threats or be the target of robbers with ill intentions.

Given that human nature is to desire more and only keep what they wish to keep, corruption in this type of money-related activity is possible. However, there is evidence that there are PCSO lottery winners as well. Some of these winners wanted to be interviewed or to appear on television to talk about how lucky they are and what challenges they have faced in life, but one day their circumstances changed as a result of their lottery win, which allowed them to survive and pursue their goals. I have seen some of these winners go on to start successful businesses because they managed their money better. But some lottery winners may have also preferred to keep their identities a secret, maybe out of concern that others might question them.

And if I'm not mistaken, the Senate or Congress has involved themselves again in this mess and wanted to have a investigation and see if there is a real winner or not?

I also read as well that like every week there is a winner, and so that's why many people aroses suspicions that something might be going on inside the lottery in the Philippines that it begs the question as whether there is really a winner, or just people inside colluding for the numbers or deliberately having someone win from within. If this is the case, then shame on the people that held the position in the PCSO.

Hilarious!
Yeah, that's the right image of that post of PCSO. Perfect. They don't really need to do this. People will still keep on betting on Lotto thinking they have a chance to be millionaires someday. Perhaps they could start another TV series like the one in the 90's where lotto winners' stories are being portrayed in the film. Maybe that will help boost their audience a lot more.
But this kind of photo editing won't help at all, they are just ruining their image and maybe it will lessen the number of lotto gamblers in our country. It's an obvious scam but it's done legally. Then, they use their charity to cover it all up. They will just say despite all of that they are still helping poor Filipino people who are looking for help and running to them.
Again, the sad part is that it is legal which takes out the chance of other organizations to determine if they are fair or not.
Me and my neighbors are talking about this two days ago because of the hype of the big jackpot that is on the line. One neighbor told me a story of his brother who bets every time there's a draw. There's one time he didn't bet using his pet numbers and all of that number came out. He felt regret and thought about it for a year or more, he said. I told my neighbor that if his brother made that bet that day, those numbers wouldn't come out. There's a system and the system knows which combinations don't have any bets.

Reason why the face of the lottery winner didn't show could be at the request of the winner, perhaps for security reasons, because it's not everybody that needs the publicity of their faces on social media. This is not disputing the argument whether the picture is fake, because corrupt officials can go to any length to scam the public, another observation is that when checks of this nature are presented to winners, the check is printed to look bigger so the public can read every details on it. Because of the corruption in governments people no longer have trust in them, this case in discussion might be a genuine win, but we'll never know for sure.

You can look at the picture in two different ways. It's possible that the editing is just to keep the winner's identity a secret to protect their privacy. However, some are worried that the manipulation could be a sign of fraudulent or corrupt behavior by the PCSO. If you want to know more about what's going on, you should study a lot or read news from reliable sources. To build processes that people can trust, they need to be open and honest.

It sure looks edited but maybe for the security purpose of the winner? The only edited part is the face which isn't bad at all, I believe it's the best thing to do, both sides are winners here and they used the winner to shill their business too, it's good.

Some lottery winners don't care about exposure that's why they boldly decide to come out to the open, but I can't do the same because countries security varies, I bet that if I do the same many bad figures will come for me, I would rather just keep my mouth shut.

Either legit or not always make the best decision for your own sake, it's better to keep your winnings as secret instead of showing the world.

Yup, this was talked about for pretty long in our office earlier. Some were defending PCSO because they went ahead and did this to "defend" whoever won it, which is kind of reasonable I guess. But then again some argued that it was shady in the first place since there were winners, or multiple ones, almost every month. I don't really know how the math works here since I don't have the numbers to check but as an average joe I guess it's a reasonable suspicion.

Not to mention there are probably better ways to tell someone to hide their face instead of needing to edit it out. Well, it is the PH, Am not surprised with the amount of stuff going on in here in the first place.

Make sense mate. Why do they have to edit a picture if they could do that, editing a picture is like tampering the only proof. Honestly, i don't even think that the picture was taken on that place, it looks like they just grab a picture of the winner and brought to that office. It does look bad and it has become viral in the social media now that PCOS is gathering a lot of criticism. This is a big hit of their credibility, IIRC, PCSO was close for many days during the time of Pres. Duterte, but now with this new controversy, I don't know what would happen to the people behind this "SCAM".


Though it's not proven yet but I believe they are trying to defaud the public. 43 million pesos is a huge money, they can divide it to themselves, whoever doing this, easy millions for them.

Idk the story behind the picture. If it's the real winner and they want to hide their identity to protect themselves, they can wear hoodie or something. Even if they don't have any with them when they went to claim the prize, I bet anyone from the office of the lottery have at least one hoodie. Or they should have spare clothing knowing that winners will get their prizes there, and it's not something new to them. Why bother spending hours on editing a photo when they can just look or ask people around them if they have hoodie, hat, shades, and mask.

It's a huge winning prize and editing the photo that is so obvious will make it unreliable to people. That's why people always have doubts about the lottery winners because of these kind of poor thinking.

This was their answer when they were called to attend a senate hearing. they are just trying to protect the identity of the winner but they've done a poor job on editing. There's only one way to find out if they are telling the truth, get the information of the winner and visit on where she is leaving now.

If PCSO can prove they didn't do anything wrong, then this allegation will be solve. However, maybe next time they'll do a better job with editing as this one really put their business at risk, imagine if people will stop spending money for lottery, their collections which was reported as Billions of pesos per month will be reduce.

Honest mistake that are too costly, we should call it that way. ^{(if they prove it)}

It looks fake and edited. The disguise mask looks so fake and it could actually be a disguise by the officials of the casino either trying claim the reward themselves or trying to misled their customers.

When people are being rewarded this way the cheque's are usually bigger than this to be bold enough for people to see. The picture really looks suspicious and there are too many red flags to raise suspension but it is difficult to come to conclusion that it's not real.

Winning such a huge amount and disclosing the identity of the winner can be dangerous as the winner can be easily targeted by criminals so it is sometimes safer not to disclose the winner's identity but it should look real and  not be an edited image.


100% Fake, there is definitely something wrong somewhere about the picture.

I think if they cheat or there are corrupt officials, of course making a real photo with a fake person is easier than hiring an unprofessional editing service like this picture, even small children know that it is an edited photo that looks not real, it doesn't need someone who understands. and professional about photos, after all if the prize is big why not do the manipulation cleanly, unlike showing pictures full of jokes.

I, who just saw it at a glance, already knew that it was an edited photo that was not talented and professional and it was even very easy to guess, maybe this is a reasonable reason for me because I never trust lottery games directly or offline. It's more fun to play or buy lottery online. Online casinos, especially big casinos that have a name, certainly don't have any strange manipulations carried out, whereas if you play offline games like this, it seems like you can manipulate them.

Moreover, if there are officials who are corrupt, it will clearly harm users and other people, it is difficult for me to believe that something like this can be trusted again in the next day, I will definitely look for a trusted lottery place 

We can barley know what looks real or fake these days as the advancement of technology has made anything to be possible. This might just be another method for the government to steal more public funds and convert them into their personal money. nobody can question them about this as there's literally no prove if theft. And it clearly shows from this picture that the funds were won in a state lottery. The leaders are too corrupt to be trusted when it comes to such amount and it they were to give it for real to an actual winner, the person would want to stay hidden and not show up on the Internet maybe for security reasons.

Or maybe he appeared without any protection in her face so the Team edited Her face putting mask
and maybe sunglass to Hide her Identity because we can question the credibility of every lottery gambling
because the winner never shown their faces and tells their personality so who will say the truth here?

So for me this is a legit winner claiming but just edited the photo for the release in public so he will
not be the target of any criminal activities .

With all the tools available you can edit almost anything and make it real, or manipulate it like this one, but it has been proven that there are winners, and the PCSO the governing body of the Philippine lotto has addressed all allegations in the past, I'm sure they can address this one so the lottery will not lose its reputation, the picture may have been edited but we all know how different lottery in the Philippines is and the culture of winning a lottery, the winners don't want their identity to expose unlike in other countries when it's ok to do so.

I still don't get why the people aren't mad about this stuff because this is as blatant they can be with how they stole the public funds, they do it this way and this has been going on for a long time in that government agency but no one bats an eye because the people that are in power are all making money out of this too so it's not in their interest that this is going to be investigated and the people behind this scheme being litigated, I just hope that more and more people are getting aware of this because when things are this bad, imagine what's happening to the stuff that's happening behind the scenes. This is a trend right now in the Philippines, this is how the corrupt officials and politicians get their stolen money now because you can opt out to not reveal your identity, the tracks are much more concealed for these corrupt people.

We have seen how people that won huge amount of money like this that do not care about the public knowing the amount they won, this kind of winning/winners are celebrated in a way that the public will not have doubts. This picture is not looking real at all. It looks fake. I am expecting a cheque that is even bigger than what we are seeing on the picture. The cheque is not even clear.

This picture below with the woman holding a check is the winner of "P43 million lotto 6/42 jackpot prize on Wednesday, Jan. 17.".

That's almost $800k if converted in USD.



As we can see in the picture, it appears to be just an edited version, casting doubt on whether there was a genuine winner or if corrupt officials inside are attempting to claim the victory using that picture as evidence.

What's your thought about that picture, is it real or edicted?

How about in your area? How reputable are your state-sponsored casinos?

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Source : https://twitter.com/inquirerdotnet/status/1747758509381574663/photo/1