The day I nearly became a multi-millionairre

But nearly is not good enough, is it? The total jackpot was HK$ 63.6 million (US$8.2 million). Since two people got the right numbers yesterday they each won HK$31.8 million each (US$4.1 million). And I wasn’t one of the two people <sigh>.

What am I talking about? The Hong Kong Mark Six. It is a lottery type game where you choose a set of 6 numbers between 1 and 49. Your can choose the 6 numbers yourself or you can get a machine generated ticket. Now the game is also available online.

Players guess what numbers will be drawn out of a lottery machine. The lottery machine is a transparent sphere containing colored balls numbered 1 to 49. The sphere is rotated and 6 numbers are drawn. Sometimes no-one gets the six numbers right. In such cases the money is carried forward and added to the next draw.

Most people in Hong Kong buy a Mark Six ticket especially when there is a jackpot or during one of the festivals when there is a Snowball Mark 6 – the amount being larger in both these cases.

Anyway, since I didn’t win yesterday’s Mark Six, I guess all the plans I had made in my head on how I would spend the money, will have to be shelved. Aah well!