$1M Lottery Raffle Delivers Big Wins but No Profit

The Belize Government Loteries Ltd. held its first-ever million-dollar Boledo draw on Saturday morning, and the excitement culminated when the winning numbers—3446—were announced. Fourteen lucky winners will share the jackpot. Their winnings will not be taxed. That is what Managing Director, Janel Espat, told News Five.

She also said that the lottery fell just short of breaking even, with total ticket sales amounting to $924,140—$76,000 shy of the $1 million prize.

“In the larger scope of looking at it, our payout is usually somewhere around the average of 70%. So this is about an 8% payout for a significantly low. It is unfortunate that we were not able to make a profit from the raffle because it was our intention to contribute any profits from the game towards a charitable organisation,” she stated.

The raffle produced 14 winners, each set to receive $71,428.57 in tax-free winnings. Espat confirmed, “No, it’s actually tax free. All, all winnings from the government lottery games are tax free. So, no taxes will be deducted.” As of now, 10 winners have already collected their prizes, and the excitement surrounding the payouts has been palpable.

A total of 184,820 tickets were sold, narrowly missing the 200,000-ticket goal.