Mark Six winners of HK$5 million or more in prize money are no longer required to register with the Hong Kong Jockey Club, but cash punters who win over HK$1 million must still get their checks at the club's Happy Valley headquarters.
The jockey club said it will cancel the registration arrangement for winners of prizes exceeding HK$5 million per HK$10 unit from today.
Winners using cash betting, telephone betting - including 1886 Telebet Automated Services - Electronic Shroff Card transactions and standing instruction services will no longer be required to register with the club.
The arrangement for winners using digital channels such as the eWin online betting platform, mobile apps of Classic 3-in-1, Racing Touch and GoalX, or the HKJC eWallet remains unchanged as they had already been waived from registration.
For winners who are betting account holders, prizes will be automatically credited to their accounts when the dividend is confirmed.
"Winners of cash bets for a dividend over HK$1 million must collect a check for their prizes at the Club's headquarters building," said the club. In fact, even when the club had been registering people winning HK$5 million or more, the identity of lottery winners remained unknown to the public.
The unit investment for each Mark Six bet is HK$10. Partial unit investments of HK$5 each are accepted for Multiple and Banker entries.
In each draw, seven numbers are drawn out of 49. The first six are called drawn numbers and the seventh is known as the extra number.
The first prize goes to the better who picked all of the six drawn numbers.
In case of more than one winner, the prize money - of at least HK$8 million - is split according to their units of investment.
The second prize is awarded to people who have picked five drawn numbers and the extra number, while the third prize goes to those with five drawn numbers.
The fourth to seventh prizes go to punters who picked between three to four drawn numbers - with or without the extra number - with a fixed prize of HK$9,600, HK$640, HK$320 and HK$40, respectively.
The draw today will be held at 9.15pm, with an estimated first prize dividend of HK$80 million. At of 8pm yesterday, the turnover was HK15.6 million.
The previous draw on Saturday saw a HK$33.6 million turnover. One winner got first prize with an HK$8 million dividend. The second prize was split between 4.5 winning units, with each getting HK$220,000, while the third prize was at HK$33,200 each for 79.5 winning units.
In the last fiscal year from 2021 to 2022, the club saw a rebound in the lottery turnover at 72 percent to HK$5.8 billion, after a lengthy suspension of the draw during
Covid outbreaks the year before.
"Partly because of the pandemic, many Mark Six customers have migrated to digital channels, which are now responsible for 63 percent of the lottery turnover," the club wrote in last year's annual report.