SOME people, it seems, are just born lucky.

Take the case of this chief executive of a pre-need company who won not just one, but two cars, in a raffle. Like him, the owner of one of the country?s leading manufacturers of consumer electronics won the grand prize in a promotion organized by a credit card company. Another rich guy won a cool P8 million when his credit card number was picked out of a pool of thousands of entries.

There is also the case of 66-year-old oil tanker mechanic Virgilio Arawe who, after a series of misfortunes such as the burning of his house and the withdrawal of P50,000 from his bank account by a swindler, won P1 million in the fourth monthly draw of PS Bank?s Monthly Millions raffle promotion last year.

No, they did not offer animal sacrifices nor burn incense to some deity to enhance their chances of winning. It was just the luck of the draw, the dictates of fate.

As Arawe puts it, he had even forgotten about the raflle promo, except that the bank teller reminded him of it when he updated his passbook in December 2007. Little did he know that the raffle number given him for keeping a tidy account with the bank would earn him a cool million. Arawe?s raffle number was electronically drawn in the June 2008 PS Bank raffle.

?When someone wins a prize (in promotions that involve raffles), we?re really talking about luck because hundreds of thousands of entries are involved,? explains Rose Egmilan, chief of the legal and consumer affairs center of the Department of Trade and Industry, ?And it?s true, the more entries you send, the higher your chances of winning.?

The odds of winning may seem insurmountable, but it?s true what people say: You only lose all the bets you don?t make.

Mandated by the Consumer Act, the DTI handles all sales promotions where consumers have to buy a product or service for them to qualify in a promo involving a raffle, redemption or a discount. The DTI must give its stamp of approval before companies selling products or services can legally hold a promo.

Hearing about ordinary folk winning big has stoked vicarious hopes in others, which explains the long lines at the off track betting stations and the lotto terminals, especially when the jackpot prize inches up the multi-million mark. The luck of the draw also keeps studio audiences packing the rafters at television shows that offer instant cash prizes.

The pull of these get-rich-quick schemes is even more acutely felt in these days of economic crisis when retail sales are slowing down and the threat of retrenchment and being laid off is real.

The desperate times have spelled a windfall for Pacific Online Systems Corp. The online lottery system provider of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office in the Visayas and Mindanao reported an income of P466.1 million last year, a 36 percent increase in the first nine months of last year.

Lucky Circle Corp., Pacific Online?s wholly-owned indirect subsidiary that owns and operates about 70 lotto outlets at SM malls nationwide, is likewise doing remarkably well in the crisis environment. Pacific Online chief executive Willy Ocier reveals in an interview that scratch cards offering instant prizes are the latest craze and are selling like the proverbial hotcakes. Last year, Lucky Circle sold 500 million cards, a big jump from the 200 million cards sold when it started issuing the cards in 2007. This year, it expects to sell as many as 800 million cards.

Ocier says he does not know of any good luck ritual that patrons follow when they buy the scratch cards. But they do spend a lot of time choosing a particular card that they feel will yield the coveted cash prize. Rather than allow the sales clerk to give them the scratch card, some patrons insist on choosing cards that they feel could be their ticket to instant fortune.

Unfortunately, the average Pinoy?s predilection to rely on luck to improve their life has also bred ingenious and unscrupulous individuals who prey on those gullible enough to believe the good news that they?ve just won in a raffle or promotion?even when they did not join one in the first place.

DTI?s Egmilan says these schemes come in many forms. Among the most used is the text message informing cellphone subscribers that they?ve just won a major prize but that they can only claim it after depositing some money to cover the transport of the prize, usually a car. Other phone calls or text messages ask for thousands of pesos worth of pre-paid cards, while others ask for credit card information.

?It is really hard to trace and stop these people. Catching them will entail a lot of police work,? says the DTI official. Caution and a bit of common sense are needed to avoid being victimized in such ploys, she adds.

?You do not just win out of the blue. You have to actively participate, meaning you have to really join a promotion or raffle,? she says. She adds that according to DTI rules, winners have to be informed in writing that they have won in a raffle or promotion. As for the tax on prizes worth over P10,000, it should be paid directly to the Bureau of Internal Revenue and not to the sponsor.

?And if you want to make sure what you?re joining is a legitimate raffle, you can call DTI at 8118271 local 204 and 221 to verify. You can also go to www.dtincr.ph to check out the permits there,? says Egmilan.

Still, the most effective way of holding on to good fortune and fending off swindlers is to have a healthy dose of skepticism. Life isn?t always fair, and Lady Luck smiles on only a few. Why should that be you?