Vietnam Lottery Company (Vietlott) on December 5 launches the Mega 6/45 lottery, a Lotto-style game with a minimum jackpot of VND12 billion ($545,000), in Hanoi following its rising revenue in the southern areas over the past few months.

Ever since consecutive winners took home big prizes Hanoi has been struck with mega lottery fever. In fact, many people in the north have started to buy tickets from southern cities and provinces and pay VND12,000-15,000 ($0.53-$0.66) which is higher than the regular price of VND10,000 ($0.45). 

“We will start distributing Mega tickets in Hanoi from December 5 and the estimated number of betting terminals will be at around 150,” a representative from Vietlott told VET.

Some people in Hanoi said that they have never seen such lottery fever like this because of the difference between the north and south. Southern provinces have been gambling, especially with traditional lottery, for a long time now whereas northern provinces have never really gotten into it.

“Vietlott has been trying to sign contracts with our agents to ensure that they sell tickets at VND10,000 per ticket. If our agents continue to unofficially sell tickets to people in other areas at higher prices, Vietlott will start managing them more strictly, to be compliant with the law,”  according to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Dam, Deputy CEO of Vietlott. He said this at a press conference on computerized lottery organized by the Ministry of Finance which took place recently.

Vietlott announced on December 5 that its total revenue has reached the milestone of VND1 trillion (more than $44 million) since its launch on July 18, 2016. Vietlott's revenue achieved VND734 billion (more than $32 million) by November 20, according to the number published previously. It is remarkable that the company's turnover has significantly increased by VND266 billion (around $12 million) after only 15 days.

According to regulations, the reward paying rate is 55 per cent of sales revenues, so the reward payment  fund is set aside to readily pay people who win prizes, he said. 

By the end of November, there were five jackpot prize winners. Of the five, the first person took the highest prize which was $4 million. This was on October 16. The succeeding winners went on to get prizes of around $2.9 million, $3.2 million, $2.5 million, respectively. The latest winner won a $2.4 million jackpot prize on November 27.

Some experts in the gambling industry commented that the frequency of winning jackpot prizes in Vietnam is much higher than in the US. In Vietnam there were five winners within one and a half months. In the US someone wins the Powerball jackpot prize every 1.7 months.

Mr. Ha Ton Vinh, a senior expert on casino and electronic games has said that the possibility of winning the jackpot prize in Vietnam is one in eight million, as calculated by statistics experts. Meanwhile in the US, the possibility of winning the jackpot prize from the Powerball lottery is one in 292 million according to Multi-State Lottery Association, Powerball lottery’s owner.

Mega 6/45 lottery is a product developed by Berjaya Gia Thinh, a joint venture between Vietlott and Malaysia’s Berjaya Corporation Berhad, which is 51 per cent owned by Berjaya Lottery Vietnam Limited.

VN Economic Times