Lotto fever hits Belize
The madness may not match that surrounding the Powerball craze in the United States earlier this year, but if you’ve been around a Lotto outlet today, you may have noticed some excitement in the air. For the first time since the game reopened a year ago, the jackpot has reached a hundred thousand dollars. That has meant brisk business nation-wide with many otherwise conservative Belizeans throwing caution to the wind and betting their last dollar that tonight will be the lucky night. Today, we spoke with a smiling Carol Young, General Manager of Tropical Gaming Company, who says that when the jackpot hit eighty-thousand dollars…people began to buy in a big way.
Jacqueline Woods
“How have tickets sales been, just how much money are people spending to win this big jackpot?”
Carol Young, General Manager, Tropical Gaming Co.
“Everybody is pulling out their two dollars and ticket sales have been good. From the time the jackpot reached eighty thousand dollars, we’ve been seeing a lot of people. People who haven’t bought before are now buying.”
Jacqueline Woods
“We understand that people in the districts are spending up to five hundred dollars on tickets.”
Carol Young
“Yes, that’s true and we’re happy about it for a lot of reasons. A hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money for somebody to win. They’ll have more opportunity to turn their money around, and for us as a company, this is the time when we start seeing a profit.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Let’s look at just how profitably the business is right now. Many people are wondering if no one wins this hundred thousand dollars will the winnings increase more than the two thousand, five hundred dollars, or will it remain the same?”
Carol Young
“No, it will remain the same if no one wins. The reason for that is we don’t make any profit as a company until the jackpot reaches sixty-five thousand dollars; that is when the company starts seeing a profit. Nobody is in danger of not claiming a prize, because we have a prize reserve. So for us, this is just the time when we are getting money to put back into our reserve.”
Jacqueline Woods
“I know that everyone wants to win this big jackpot, because we see the lines out here at the Lotto office, but people should also bear in mind that there is also a possibility that four, five people can win this money.”
Carol Young
“Yes, they must bear that in mind and I would also like to call people’s attention to is that a lot of people are so focussed on winning big prize that a lot of people have not been checking their tickets carefully for match three, match four and free tickets. They should really pay more attention and check their tickets to claim their prizes, you have ninety days in which to do so.”
The lotto balls drop tonight at nine…right here on Channel 5.
