How to Win PowerLotto: PCSO's Version of the US's PowerBall

Patterned after the popular Powerball in the United States, “555+1 PowerLotto,” the newest and biggest lotto game of the state-run Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has a minimum winning jackpot of P50M.
At P50 per play, bettors will generate their number combination from two sets of numbers.

How to play the PowerLotto:

Choose five numbers from 1 to 55.
Pick an extra number, called the “power number,” from 1 to 10.

In order to win, bettors need to pick the right number combination in any order from the first set and the exact power number from the second to win the jackpot.

Although the minimum bet costs five times that of the 6/42 lotto, the new game offers a bigger jackpot prize

PowerLotto prizes:

jackpot minimum of P50M ,
consolation prizes:

P700,000 : five number combination from the first set
P50,000 : four of the winning number combination and the power number
P4,000 : has three of the winning numbers and the power number
P400 : two numbers and the power number
P100 : one of the five-number winning combination and the power number

How to win the PowerLotto(PowerBall)?

Similar to my earlier post on How to Win the Lotto, you need to know how many possible tickets you need to buy in order to know the odds and the investment:

Using mathematical probability, it's a combination of C(55,5) x 10 which is equal to: 3478761 x 10 = 34787610.

In comparison, the SuperLotto has a total combination of 13983816 about 2.5 times less odds than that.

With a total of 34787610 possible combinations at P50 each, total investment needed to be 100% sure of winning the jackpot prize is P1,739,380,500.

Do you have P1.8B to bankroll the risky game? Even if the jackpot prize reached P2B, there is also the risk that more than one person will win :P

Related Post:
How to Win PCSO Lotto
How to Claim Lotto Prize


Lottery; How to Win the PowerBall; How to Win the Lottery

How to Win the Lotto in the Philippines (PCSO)

No, it's not one of those spam messages telling you won a certain lottery somewhere without you even buying a ticket. They'll "request" you to make advance payments to claim your prize and disappear without a trace...an advance fee fraud :(


The Philippine Lotto's grand prize is now a whopping P162,200,000.00 and counting. Many Filipinos maintain a set of magic numbers that they hope to be the next winning numbers to the grand prize of PCSO Lotto.

How many tickets do you need to buy in order to win the lottery? I depends on the system, for example Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s (PCSO) Superlotto 6/49 requires you 6 numbers out of a pool of 49. In mathematical terms (probability and statistics), it translates to a combination of 6 out of 49.

Combination Formula:
C(n,r) = n!/(n-r)!r!

for Superlotto 6/49: n=49, r=6

for example Lotto 6/42 and SuperLotto 6/49:

6/42 : 5245786 combinations at P10/ticket requires P52,457,860.00 to buy all tickets

6/45 : 8145060 combinations at P10/ticket requires P81,450,600.00 to buy all tickets

6/49 : 13983816 combinations at P20/ticket requires P279,676,320.00

How to win the Lotto Grand Prize? Simple yet requires a lot of capital and lotto outlets unless you can automate ticket printing.

Wait for the time when the jackpot reaches P280M (plus estimated overhead expenses) then buy all possible combinations. The pot will increase once you you buy the additional tickets possibly reach almost double the initial prize since part of your bet is placed as part of the total pot. (this is out of this world for the average pinoys)

Risks: There might be more than one winning ticket so you have to share the grand prize with the other winner/s.

Other variants of the game:
EZ2 requires only two numbers while Swertres, three numbers.

Prizes for 6/49
for 5 numbers: PhP 56,000.00
4 numbers: PhP 1,000.00
3 numbers: PhP 100.00


Historical Trivia: Jose Rizal, Philippine National Hero, played and won the lottery in 1892 while in exile in Dapitan.

Related Post:
How to Claim Lotto Prize

Lotto; SuperLotto; Lottery; How to Win the Lottery; How to Win the Lotto; Sure Win Lottery; Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office; EZ2; Swertres

Of Metric Prefixes: Pico,Nano, Micro, Milli, Centi, Deci, Deka, Hecto, Kilo, Mega, Giga, Exa, Peta

These aren't a game but the subject of this post simply are the metric unit prefixes we used to use way back in college studying engineering. It was triggered by a request for me to buy Premarin capsules at Mercury in 1.25 mg dosage but unfortunately they don't carry with many branches I inquired at. I settled to buying 625 microgram capsules to get the equivalent dosage recommended.

At South Star Drug, an inquiry by a friend from the pharmacist said taking two 625 microgram capsules is not the same as one capsule of 1.25 mg. Seems the pharmacist ain't sure what she's saying :(

well just to inform you 1000 micrograms is equal to 1 milligram (mg) and therefore the same dosage in two separate capsules. Premarin 1.25 mg has been out of stock lately.
Here is a link that explains in detail about these prefixes engineers and scientists are so well accustomed to.