Millions unclaimed on the Mark Six
Tonight's Mark Six lottery first prize is expected to be around HK$62 million, putting dollar signs in the eyes of punters all over the city.
But the big money is not just a result of Tuesday's Mid-Autumn Festival snowball rolling over because there was no winner.
Unclaimed Mark Six prize money - which amounted to HK$54 million for the 12 months from July of last year - is also put into the snowball pool for special occasions such as the Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival. The amount that goes into each draw is decided by the Jockey Club, which runs the lottery.
The club says there has been a fall in the amount of unclaimed prize money. Between July 2009 and June of last year, HK$68 million went unclaimed - HK$3 million more than the season before. Winning tickets from the normally three-times-a-week lottery are valid for 60 days.
The Jockey Club reported a record Mark Six season turnover of HK$6.87 billion in July - a result of the price of a line of numbers doubling from HK$5 to HK$10. The minimum first prize also went from HK$5 million to HK$8 million with the price change.
A winless string of draws in May also led to a record jackpot of HK$133 million.
The Jockey Club said that having more turnover along with a lower amount of unclaimed money was likely to be a reflection of people using betting accounts to gamble more, allowing payouts to be automatically credited to them.
$44.5m
The amount, in HK dollars, three lucky punters each won from a record jackpot in May. The turnover for that draw was HK$343 million
