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INTRODUCTION
1. The game
The Hong Kong Jockey Club only takes a fraction of the lottery proceeds, allocating the
rest for prize money and charity. Fifty four of lottery sales money goes directly into the
prize pool, of which 9% is allocated to the Snowball Fund.
The funds generated by the lottery benefit both the government and local charities. 15%
of all proceeds go straight to the Lotteries Fund, which is distributed amongst social
welfare capital projects in Hong Kong. 25% of all funds are used to pay the lottery duty
to the government and the Hong Kong Jockey Club keeps 6% as commission.
The lotterys most frequently drawn numbers are currently: 4, 12, 20, 46, and 49.
The lotterys most least frequent numbers are currently: 1, 14, 23, 27, and 32.
4. Mark Six Anecdotes
Lucky Patriotism- The people of Hong Kong love the Mark Six so much that it is often
said that one who does not enter the lottery is not a true citizen. Unlike other Asian lottery
draws, Hong Kong broadcasts the drawing live on public television which creates
national interest and making it a favorite in the region. When the jackpot rises to
staggering heights after weeks of rollovers, such as in Spring 2011, long lines form at
lottery offices, oftentimes wrapping around the block. Many superstitious Hong Kong
residents travel to the other side of the city to purchase their tickets from an office where
a previous winning ticket was bought.
II.
cylinder and broadcast on live television in Hong Kong. Mark Six invites notable
citizens, justices of the peace, and beneficiaries of their lottery charity fund to supervise
the televised drawing.
2. How it Works
The Hong Kong Mark Six Lottery game uses whats called
a 6/49 matrix which means that when playing the Mark 6
you need to select 6 numbers from a number range of 1 to
49. If you match all 6 numbers drawn then you will win a
1st division prize the Mark 6 jackpot.
For every game 7 numbers are drawn using a traditional
ball drawing machine that contains 49 numbers. Firstly the 6 main numbers are drawn
then a 7th number the Extra Number which is used to determine winners on prize
levels 2, 4 and 6.
As well as the jackpot itself there are 6 more ways that you can win on the Hong Kong
Mark Six which means that are a very large number of prizes to be won 3 times every
single week.
The Mark 6 jackpot prize starts off at HK$ 8 MILLION and will rollover rising in size
each time it is not won. With 3 potential rollover draws every week and no limit to how
big it can grow some incredibly large Mark 6 jackpot figures have been won.
A Quick Pick facility is available when you play the Hong Kong Lottery very much the
same as the Lucky Dip option that is used in the UK National Lottery or Europes Euro
Millions or nearly all USA Lottery games which means that you can ask the lottery
retailer or computer to randomly select all your numbers for you.
Mark Six is a lottery style game where players guess what numbers will be drawn out of
a lottery machine. The lottery machine is a transparent plastic cylinder which contains
colored balls numbered 1 to 49. The cylinder is rotated to provide randomization in the
drawing process. Each drawing occurs on 9:30PM (Hong Kong Time) every Tuesday,
Thursday, and Sunday, while bets are accepted until 15 minutes prior to the drawing.
Players choose six numbers out of a possible 49. Each selection of the numbers costs
10 HKD and is one selection of the results of the lottery draw. In the draw, 7 numbers are
drawn. The first six numbers drawn are called the "drawn numbers". The last one drawn
is called the "extra number". Often, in Cantonese this number is called a 'half number'.
The cost of playing the Mark 6 Lottery is HK$ 10 for one entry.
So playing the Mark 6 is very easy simply select your own 6 numbers or request them
to be automatically chosen for you by either the computer or HKJC agent's random
number generator.
3. Who
Can Play?
Today though this is not a concern as there are a good number of online lottery ticket
sales retailers such as Coral and The Lotter who are both authorized and genuine you
are now easily able to select your Mark 6 numbers online and purchase your Mark 6
tickets from almost anywhere in the world that you may be living.
This is good news of course if you live outside of Hong Kong and want to play the Mark
6 Lottery and ensure your entry into the next draw or even if you want to have the
convenience and ease of being able to buy lottery tickets online from your own home.
You need to be 18 years of age to be eligible to purchase a ticket for any Hong Kong
Lotto game including the Hong Kong Mark 6.
When the machine draws the second number, out of the 48 possible results (it is 48
because one ball has previously left the machine), five of them will match the chosen
number (it is now five because one of the chosen numbers has already been matched). So
the probability that the second Drawn Number matches any chosen number, denoted by
P2, equals 5/48. After using the same technique to find out P 3, P4, P5, and P6, it becomes
clear that the probability of all the Drawn Numbers matching the chosen number, i.e. the
probability of winning the first prize, equals
This probability is so small that one needs to bet nearly 14 million times on average in
order to win the first prize just once! The probability of winning other prizes can be
calculated by using similar technique, and are listed in Table 1 for reference.
Misconception about Mark Six Many bettors like to study the statistics of the Mark Six
lottery (Figure 3) to help them predict the results of the coming draw. Suppose the
number 20 has been drawn consecutively in the past ten lotteries. Some bettors will think,
The number 20 is on fire and it is very likely to be drawn again. Others will say, The
number 20 has already exhausted all its luck and it is unlikely to be drawn again. Who
are correct?