LOTO Pacific Leisure Corp., a wholly owned unit of listed Pacific Online Systems Corp., has bought online betting company Lucky Circle Corp. Luckly Circle is the most popular betting firm in the country, known to a countless mob that participates daily in lotto gambling.

It owns and operates 20 online lottery betting outlets located in SM shopping malls nationwide.  The P18-million deal effectively increases Loto Pacific’s online betting outlets from 12 to 32 nationwide. The transaction also turns Lucy Circle into a unit of Loto Pacific.

“Loto Pacific will build on LCC’s present infrastructure and beef up its working capital. We intend to multiply our presence in the SM malls, Hypermarts and Supermarkets, to distribute Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s (PCSO) lottery products and instant scratch tickets, said Pacific Online president Willy Ocier.

Pacific Online is the lone online lottery system provider in Visayas and Mindanao in partnership with the state-run PCSO. Last July, an updated type of instant scratch games was introduced by PCSO as part of its ultimate goal to eliminate illegal diversions, such as jueteng and maciao.

Called Triple Cash and Money Bags, each ticket is sold at P20 and gives the public a chance to instantly win as much as P200,000. The tickets are sold in all 193 Netopia Internet branches nationwide. Netopia, along with AB Gaming Corp. and Pacific Online are marketing partners of PCSO for the new games.

Ocier said 10 million tickets will be sold from July to December in an initial approach to sales. “We are still developing a market for these games. As the games mature, we will start planning for the next phases, he said. PCSO expects gross sales of P200 million from the two scratch games. The price winnings for the games will come from sales.

“These products have huge potential and will complement the lotto games. Likewise, legitimate games like these will help eliminate illegal games like jueteng and maciao, Ocier said.

Instant scratch games  are popular in the US, Canada and Australia and is now gaining grounds in China. “This is a multibillion dollar industry that we can take part in, added Ocier.