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COSTA RICA |
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20%
Of Christmas Lottery Unsold, Big Prize Draw
Tonight
The economy has played an important role in
this years big lottery, the “gordo navideño”
as Costa Ricans have backed off from making
unnecessary purchases, that includes lottery
tickets.
Typically, the "gordo" is a big sell out
every year. Pieces of the lottery or entire
tickets are gobbled up quickly and prior to
the draw on the second Sunday in December,
there is not one piece of left.
This year, however, things are different.
Despite the rush in sales since Friday, the
Junta de Protección Social (JPS) says it has
20% of the lottery tickets unsold. These are
lottery tickets that it has not put on the
streets, so the number of unsold tickets
could be higher today when vendors hand back
up to 15% of their unsold inventory.
The situation means that the big prize or a
number of smaller prizes could fall on
unsold tickets. If that were to occur, the
law is clear, the unclaimed prize would be
spread out among the Hogares de Ancianos
(old age homes), associations that help out
hospitals, the Instituto Costarricense del
Deporte y la Recreación (ICODER) - sports
and recreation institute, and others, as
explained by Francisco Ibarra of the (JPS).
The last time that that happened was back in
1988.
The big draw is today (Sunday) at 7pm live
from the podium set up in the Plaza de la
Democracia in downtown San José and
broadcast live on national television, with
the major prize of ¢725 million colones for
an "entero" (entire ticket) or ¢18.125.000
for a "fracción" (1/40th of an entero).
In other lottery news, 95 charges of
overpricing by vendors have been filed with
the JPS. The majority of the charges (84)
are in San José.
Unscrupolous vendors have been known to
overcharge for a particular number or series
of numbers, taking advantage of the public's
feverish attitude when buying the lottery.
The JPS has encouraged lottery buyers to
report overcharging by vendors, though the
JPS admits that they only receive a small
fraction of what really occurs on the
streets daily.
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