The Customs and Excise Department conducted an anti-smuggling operation in the western waters of Hong Kong last Wednesday (Sept. 21), intercepting a river trade vessel and seizing a batch of Mark Six lottery tickets that had been bet on and were due to be drawn on the night of September 22.
About 600 smuggled Mark Six lottery tickets were found to have won HK$70,000 in total.
The Department is consulting legal experts on how to handle the prize money.
Officers seized 16,000 tickets suspected of being smuggled to China and Macau last Thursday and arrested two men.
According to the Jockey Club yesterday, the tickets worth HK$330,000 were bought for the draw held last Thursday, and 600 of them had won HK$70,000 in total.
Although the department did not reveal the range of prize money won, the rewards for the fourth to seventh prizes are fixed between HK$40 and HK$9,600, while the top three vary with the number of winners.
It is believed that the suspects bought the tickets to resell in China and Macau for a profit of HK$4 to HK$13 each, said the department
Customs said it was consulting the Department of Justice about the next step in dealing with the haul.
Customs has also been consulting the Jockey Club about the purchase channel and source of the payment for the seized lottery tickets.
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