New year lucky draw featuring HK$4 million in prizes crashes just minutes after registration opens
- Prizes include round-trip tickets with Cathay Pacific, iPhones, supermarket vouchers, luxury hotel and spa stays and tickets to Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park
A new year lucky draw featuring more than HK$4 million (US$513,000) in prizes organised by the Hong Kong authorities crashed minutes after its launch on Tuesday evening.
The Hong Kong Tourism Board, which hosted the event, said it had decided to postpone the draw to Wednesday night because of the system failure, adding the results would be announced at 10pm on its website.
Open to locals and tourists alike, the draw was arranged after the city’s traditional firework display was cancelled because of safety fears prompted by the months-long social unrest.
The online draw will take place over two rounds on the event’s website and opened for registration between 6pm and 11.30pm on New Year’s Eve.
But the server was down shortly after 6pm. Some participants had difficulty receiving the verification code via email, while others were told to “try again later” as the server was “temporarily busy”.
