By Perseus Echeminada (The Philippine Star)
The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) reported yesterday that even the country’s national hero Dr. Jose Rizal was an avid player of the lottery during the Spanish era and was even one of three winners of a draw in 1892.
The PCSO website said Rizal won P6,200 as his share of the jackpot in the draw of 1892, while the doctor was then in exile in Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte.
According to another website dapitan.com on Sept. 21, 1892 the mail boat Butuan was approaching the town of Dapitan carrying lottery ticket No. 9736 jointly owned by Captain Carnicero, Dr. Rizal and Francisco Equilior (a Spanish resident of Dipolog, a neighboring town of Dapitan), which won the second prize of P20,000 in the government-owned Manila lottery.
Rizal’s share of the winning lottery ticket was P6,200. He gave P2,000 to his father and P200 to his friend Jose Basa in Hong Kong and the rest he invested well by purchasing agricultural lands along the coast of Talisay about one kilometer away from Dapitan.
The PCSO said historically, lotteries have been in existence in the Philippines since 1833. Under the auspices of private enterprises called Empresa de Reales Loteria Espanolas de Filipinas, the Spanish government allowed the lotteries to generate revenues.
The lotto frenzy now sweeping the country with the 6/55 Grand Lotto online lottery draw, whose jackpot reached P730 million last night, had its roots during the Spanish colonial period, the PCSO said.
Rizal’s winning the Manila lottery reveals an aspect of his lighter side. He never drank hard liquor and never smoked but he was a lottery addict.
“This was his only vice,†said Wenceslao E. Retana, Rizal’s first Spanish biographer and former enemy.
The lottery during the time of Rizal used the traditional manually operated tambiolo where numbers were drawn for the winning combinations.
The principle of the game remains the same except for the modern technology
today where the game is now computerized and the draw is aired live on television and people have access to the online results nationwide.
PCSO chairman Margie Juico had expressed concern over the soaring jackpot, which she said might be too much, and instead of helping the winner, the huge jackpot could ruin the life of the lucky winner.
“Since we are in a third world country I hope that such huge amount of money might help a lot of people,†she said.
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