BIRTHDATES or lucky pick numbers  can spell magic and a huge fortune for bettors of the   Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s Grand lotto or 6/55  set to be drawn Monday night with an expected jackpot  of over P280 million.

The PCSO earlier declared no winner for Saturday night’s 6/55 Grand Lotto draw at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

Bettors missed the 46-02-33-17-19-09 winning combination, which would have guaranteed them a share of the P258 million jackpot prize.

A nationwide frenzy is already building up for the jackpot as ticket sales soared from the average of P25 million per draw to P113 million.

This is the first time this year that the jackpot of the grand lotto game breached P250 million.

The biggest Grand Lotto jackpot was P741 million, which a balikbayan from New York won with the winning ticket he bought in Olongapo City in November 2010.

Regular draws of 6/55 are done every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

Earlier, a 35-year-old seaman from Laguna won a P21 million jackpot, while a 33-year-old domestic helper of Batangas City working abroad grabbed P4.9 million in separate draws of Mega Lotto 6/45.

The seaman plans to quit his job in an international shipping line, while the maid will continue working abroad. Both of them hit the jackpot using family members’ birth dates.

The instant millionaires including the overseas Filipino worker who is a single parent and the seaman claimed their winnings Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

“She said she will be buying a house and lot like many of our jackpot winners, and help her brothers,” PCSO General Manager Jose Ferdinand M. Rojas II said.

The seaman placed P840 worth of bets using the 6/45 System 9, which has 84 combinations in a Sta. Cruz, Laguna, outlet last January 30, he said.

Together with a female teacher of Ilocos Norte, they hit and shared the jackpot of P42,012,459, said Rojas, for matching the winning numbers of 6/45: 02-10-06-11-26-24.

The teacher already claimed her share last week, Rojas said.

Rojas said the household worker placed P40 bets for four combinations last Friday, February 3, one of them matching the drawn numbers of 34-05-29-23-11-08.