Anyone who hoped to win the nearly $1-million Chase the Ace prize in Goulds, N.L. will have to wait as the provincial government has postponed Wednesday night’s draw pending the outcome of an investigation.
The postponement came “after evidence of additional duplicate tickets” was brought to Service NL’s attention, according to Perry Trimper, the minister responsible for the department that oversees lotteries in the province.
Trimper told Global News that the department learned about some “duplicate tickets” that were in the hands of some ticket holders at 4:30 p.m. local time. But sales continued afterward.
“That caused us concern because it runs counter to the terms and conditions at which the lottery is to be run, there is to be no duplicate tickets,” Trimper said.
He said staff decided to postpone the draw because the “integrity of the event was compromised” — additional duplicate tickets emerged as they were set to make an announcement.
The company that printed the tickets initially suggested that only four of them had issues, Trimper said.
But with more tickets having emerged, it’s possible that the manner in which they were printed was the cause of the errors, though the minister hasn’t confirmed that.
Even after some tickets turned up with the same numbers, the province said organizers of the draw at St. Kevin’s Parish were allowed to continue selling tickets until 8 p.m.
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Trimper called the event a “very important” one as it has become an “amazingly successful” fundraiser. Organizers agreed that postponing the draw was the right decision.
For those who haven’t played the game, tickets are sold and a winner is announced. The winner draws from a deck of cards and if they choose the Ace of Spades, they wins the jackpot.
If the Ace is not chosen, the jackpot carries over to the next draw.
“What we were finding, the first bit of evidence that came to us late this afternoon was in fact a duplication,” Trimper said.
Trimper could not say whether the duplicate tickets belonged to one or more people.
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When the draw is rescheduled, Trimper said some changes may need to be implemented due to the “unusual circumstances” surrounding Wednesday night’s event.
He said the changes would be needed given the prize’s size.
Those who purchased tickets for the July 19 draw should retain them as they will be able to be used for the rescheduled draw.
There were several reasons behind why tickets were able to continue to be sold, Trimper said, including that people had travelled long distances to purchase tickets and turning them away could cause “additional friction.”
“We’re asking everyone to retain their ticket stubs and we’ll be providing instruction on whether or not they need to exchange those tickets or whether they’ll be valid or whether they’ll be a refund,” he said.
This is the first time such a situation has come up with a Chase the Ace draw in Newfoundland and Labrador, but Trimper said similar circumstances have been observed elsewhere, in places such as Cape Breton.
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The province is working with the organizers and the printing company that produced the tickets to verify whether conditions under the lottery licence were met.
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