Lotto aficionados will have another crack at winning one of the biggest prize money in lottery history in the country as the Super Lotto 49 draw nears the P150 million mark on Sunday.

An official of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) said the Sunday draw top prize is expected to reach P145 million since no bettor was lucky enough to guess correctly the six-number combination drawn last Thursday.

Nevertheless, Don de Leon, chief of staff of PCSO chairman Sergio Valencia, disclosed that a total 77 bettors missed only one number from the winning six-number combination of 29-28-26-17-37-16. Each will receive P56,000 in consolation prize.

De Leon said the winning combination on February 4 paid out a total P130,936,737.60 jackpot prize.

De Leon noted that the Thursday top prize money was increased by over P16 million from the Tuesday jackpot of P114,612,062.80.

On the other hand, the Tuesday top prize was P12.6 million higher than last Sunday’s jackpot.

“As the jackpot prize goes up, so does lotto sales. We expect at least P15 million more to be added to the Sunday prize money,” said De Leon.

The PCSO official also revealed that today’s Powerlotto draw may reach P94 million and will soon hit the P100 million level if nobody gets the six-number combination.

Powerlotto is the latest lotto game which combines lotto and digit games.

A bettor wins the jackpot if he guesses correctly five numbers from a set of numbers ranging from 1 to 55 and one number from a set of “power numbers” ranging from 1-10.

The Powerlotto offers a minimum P50 million jackpot prize but its minimum bet is P50.

A second prize of P700,000 is given to a bettor who is able to correctly guess the five numbers from the 1-55 set.

Meanwhile, Conrado Zabella, PCSO assistant general manager for lottery operations, said 4,749 Lotto 49 bettors will receive P1,000 for getting four of the six number combinations while 89,620 others who guessed three digits, will receive P100 each.