PRE-OCCUPYING the minds of most Filipinos nowadays is the fantasy of winning the one-billion peso jackpot in the Ultralotto. As the pot money continues to accrue with no one winning the jackpot prize, it has become a proposition that is very hard to reject by both the monied and the poor. All these have resulted to a revelatory moment actually on how the whole sociology of aspirations drive the lotto craze that in turn expose how the economy and society operates.
For those who come from the populous poorer sector, it is the one time solution to all their problems and the salvation of also their relatives and friends, and the entire community actually. It is heartwarming to hear how the upliftment of one also mean the shoring up of others for this set. Better than the trickle down system promoted by economists, this cultural “balato” system ensures that benefits of one are spread to the enjoyment of the larger community.
It should come, therefore, as no surprise, that a notable suggestion has been made by this set that has gone the rounds of social media in the past few days. If there are about a hundred million Filipinos in the country according to the latest population census, and the lotto pot money has reached a billion pesos already, then government should just award the poorest 2,000 Filipino families with a cash amount of say P500,000. While the amount is peanuts to a few of the rich comprising only a fraction of the population, P500,000 is already life-changing for the country’s poorest population and will go along way for their survival and their children’s education.
Besides, if the point of the lotto was to provide government money for charity, then wouldn’t it be equitable and fair if the poorest of the poor received from this bounty to help them survive. At first glance, all these seem logical and fantastic. But government will not allow it and so will many of the people who placed their bets for a number of reasons.
For one, putting in one billion pesos in the hands of the poorest of the poor will not guarantee that will spend it for productive purposes. Second, it will be a nightmare distributing this money to the poorest of the poor for many will surely be invented and/or resurrected. If there are ghost employees who are included in government payroll, what would stop enterprising officials to also craft a list of invented poor Filipinos and then pocket the money on their behalf?
However, apart from the logistical problems that come with this alternative lotto model, the deeper reason why it won’t fly is because it is predicated on age-old gambling principles. People bet on the lotto not to uplift poorest of the poor, but to allow one’s family and loved ones to escape the clutches of poverty immediately.
The pot money would not have reached that dizzying amount if it offered the poorest with the chance to escape from poverty. The reason why it is so alluring and effective is because it offers that illusion of a privileged one-time free pass, not for everyone but only for that one or handful of lucky bettors. It is like a social safety valve where such illusions are promoted in order to allow the people’s growing frustrations to let off steam.
Those who are already rich have other motivations in playing the lotto beyond survival but are no less enamored by the prospect of adding a billion to their millions. They are salivating for other reasons, mainly to keep themselves and their lifestyle and that of their businesses away from the reach of others. Surely, new monied upstarts cannot be admitted just that easily to the exclusive club of capital. By taking the chances on winning the lotto, they are preserving the given hierarchical order of things by keeping capital where it belongs - to the select few.
In the end, this is the social function of gambling and the Ultralotto for that matter. They provide the illusion of a fantastic and billion-peso escape that we all propped up collectively with our own betting money to maintain a system that places capital in the control of a few. While we fantasize on how we will spend that ridiculous amount of money, the sound of hot spitting fat being cooked should be audible to us too. That is the sound of us frying on our own oily mixture of frustration and structural injustice in the social cauldron called capitalism.