Saturday January 2, 2021 | GREATER VICTORIA, BC
by Mary P Brooke, editor | Island Social Trends
Someone in BC struck the jackpot with a winning 6/49 ticket on December 30 (top prize $9,342,568.90 on a ticket purchased in West Vancouver). It was the only ticket sold across Canada that matched all six numbers for the multi-million-dollar jackpot, says BC Lottery Corporation. The numbers were: 7, 14, 30, 32, 38, and 45.
The odds of winning a Lotto 6/49 jackpot are 1 in 13,983,816. The timing of this win was also good marketing for BCLC, putting possibly more people into the mood to buy lottery tickets.
Lottery ticket funds in BC are used by the provincial government for health and education, with a portion redistributed to municipalities (called gaming grants).
“BCLC’s 3,500 lottery retailers play an important role in delivering revenue to the Province of BC, and BCLC counts on them to do so safely and lawfully,” said BCLC Media Relations officer Erica Simpson in an email to Island Social Trends.
Retail lottery during COVID-19:
During the pandemic the levels of gaming grants to municipalities have been lower than usual, as consumers have had less money and/or less willingness to use disposable income for the purpose of gambling. Casino revenues are down across the province, though that is in large part due to public health orders around the size of gatherings.
Age restriction:
Since 2018, the BCLC ID25 policy — actually more fully described as “Player must be 19+” — requires that retailers selling lottery tickets must ask the customer for their age. Confirmation is to be achieved by the viewing of one piece of government-issued photo identification for customers who appear to be 25 years of age our younger.
During the COVID-19 pandemic: “Customers may be asked to briefly, and from a safe distance, remove their mask to help verify identification,” says Simpson.
