Life's a lottery for punters who fail to claim Mark Six winnings
It takes more than good luck to win the Mark Six sometimes - a good memory also helps.
Unclaimed Mark Six wins amounted to HK$74 million last year, up 12 per cent from 2006, as hundreds of negligent winners failed to claim their lucky tickets.
There is still hope if a winning ticket is lost, according to the Jockey Club. Hopeful punters can claim the prize by recalling details about the winning ticket - numbers, time and location of purchase - and convincing betting centre staff that he or she is a real winner.
"We would verify the details and see if nobody else has laid claim to the same prize," a club spokeswoman said.
When betting centre officers are convinced, they will advise the claimant to file an application and pay a HK$50 processing fee - which means any prize smaller than the fee will probably end up unclaimed.
In fact, 250 such applications were filed last year, up 8.6 per cent from 2006, and nearly all applicants successfully collected their cash.
"Only those who can recall convincing details are asked to file applications, so almost all applicants succeeded in the end," the spokeswoman said.
In 2005, about HK$71 million in Mark Six prizes were uncollected, while the number for 2005 was HK$83 million.
Since 2000, the Jockey Club has been transferring unclaimed wins to the Snowball Pool. On selected draws, the Snowball Pool is added to the 1st division prize. These draws are known as Snowball Draws.
The Jockey Club advises punters to open a betting account so they can collect their wins even if they lose their tickets.
Any prize below HK$5 million will be automatically transferred to the winner's account.
SCMP. Feb 16, 2008.
3 comments:
betting account is better to collect the prize, but the con is you will be gambling more and more as the account is so convincing. It also got telephone buying service. some betting account planning have linking with your bank account... and it is danger to have this kind of gambling with betting account.
Winning a lottery is a chance out of a million, but I wonder the probability of winning one but forgetting to claim it, I suppose it should be even lower. Haha, perhaps those people are too rich.
Since young until now, my family has never won one, though we know it is almost impossible, we are highly aware of every lottery announcement. Unlike these forgetful winning losers, even knowing they might receive a prize, they let it go.
If a chance is given, everyone should treasure it. Once it's lost, it might never return. This time, it might be just money, but sometimes, there might be more important things, job opportunities, friendship, love and even your life!
You're right. Sometimes I don't really understand why people are so crazy about gambling. You can always see middle-aged men standing outside Jockey Club on racing days. Their effort in studying the Chinese racing posts just amaze me all the time. I think it's just a like taking drugs. This is something for you to live your life.
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