Picture of the Day: Better Luck Next Time?

Five tickets, and not much luck for this beginner punter

Tuesday was the 40th anniversary of Mark Six, the lottery in Hong Kong and it marked the milestone promising a HK$100 million (US$12.86 million) jackpot.

Naturally lots of people went to Jockey Club outlets to buy tickets, even first-timers like me.

On Sunday night there was a massive queue going out the door from the one in Kennedy Town, so I walked to the one in Sheung Wan and bought five tickets that are computer drawn at HK$20 each.

In the end HK$446 million worth of tickets were sold.

The numbers were drawn last night -- 11, 16, 19, 21, 30 and 33, the bonus number 31.

What did I get? One ticket had two numbers, the rest had one number or none.

But there were five lucky winners who won HK$27 million each.

I like many others knew the chances were slim, but as the saying goes, "You gotta be in it to win it".

Oh well.

Nevertheless, a good chunk of the money will be used to help Hong Kong's underprivileged, such as the elderly, the poor and young people seeing rehabilitation.