BELIZE CITY, Mon. Dec. 30, 2019– For those Belizeans buying the weekly Sunday Lottery, a second Christmas came on Sunday, December 29, the last Sunday for 2019, before the new decade of 2020 strolls in. Most Lottery buyers believe in dreams, and many like to take things such as dates and events as the rake, so it was no surprise that many bought the four numbers of the coming year, in sequence. No it’s not hard to figure out why a large number of Lottery buyers decided to base the number on their Lottery ticket on the coming New Year: 2020.
The numbers that pop out of the lottery machine at the old Treasury Building are oftentimes greeted with a healthy dose of skepticism. That was not to be this Sunday. When the machine began spitting out the balls and the first two numbers that popped out were two and zero, many people listening to the Lottery draw began holding their breath. When the third number popped out and it was another two, people started gripping onto their chairs, and when the final number of the first prize popped out and it was, incredibly, a zero, Lottery buyers who had bought 2020 were ecstatic.
It is not known how many persons won the full jackpot, but it is most likely hundreds. It is doubtful that, in the history of the Sunday Lottery, so many persons have ever captured the first prize jackpot, which pays $150 for a 10-cent ticket.
Brads, the current holder of the concession for Boledo and the Sunday Lottery, among other games, took a massive hit. We understand that this morning there was a line of winners at his store, located at the Farmers Market near the Belcan Bridge. Information to Amandala that cannot be independently verified indicates that across Belize, Brads Gaming Company took a hit in the region of 20 odd million dollars.
We asked Amandala’s Boledo guru and numbers expert, Gilroy “Press” Cadogan, what’s his take on that surprising 2020 jackpot. Cadogan said that, based on what he has come to understand, a jackpot like that probably caused Brads to lose between 2 and 3 million dollars.
Cadogan explained that Brads might want to revamp his whole drawing strategy and go back to the four-cylinder machine. “The two-cylinder machine weh ih gabella off the public with, created that same scenario that materialized. If he had four cylinders that scenario would not have materialized,” Cadogan explained.
Cadogan said that, based on his stats, this could occur again, though it is very unusual. In Sunday’s draw, it is the same 2-ball that came out of the first cylinder four times, as opposed to it coming out of the second cylinder once, he told us.
Cadogan told us that even if he had to pay out 20 million dollars, Brads has still not really lost because he estimates that Brads has raked in around 15 million dollars per year since 2008 when he was given the concession. Cadogan ended our interview by saying that he knows about one man who spent $200 and won $300,000 from the 2020 jackpot.
We attempted to get comments from Brads about the incredible jackpot, but he declined to give us a formal interview, saying that he cannot say how many persons won the jackpot and how many persons won the single number.
We asked him if he is confident that the government will grant him another concession, since he already has the infrastructure established for the selling of Boledo and Lottery tickets. He told us that the deadline to submit the application is sometime in January, and he has not reapplied to renew his concession.
The government has indicated that it is planning to collect more money from the Boledo and Lottery concessions. Presently the government earns around 2 million dollars from the sales of Lottery and Boledo tickets.
Feature photo: Long lines all over the country to collect winnings. Photo: San Pedro