600 of 16,000 smuggled Mark Six lottery tickets seized by Hong Kong customs end up winning HK$70,000 in total
- Prize money ranges from tens of Hong Kong dollars to nearly HK$10,000 for each winning ticket, source says
- Box of 16,000 tickets destined to be sold illegally in Macau and mainland China was found in cargo vessel
About 600 out of 16,000 Mark Six lottery tickets seized by Hong Kong customs in an anti-smuggling operation last week won various prizes amounting to nearly HK$70,000 (US$8,917) in total.
The Post learned that one of the tickets secured the fourth prize worth HK$9,600 in the lottery draw last Thursday, while some won the seventh prize of HK$40 each.
“The winning tickets are now among other evidence such as cash and valuables seized in other cases that are being kept in a high-security storage facility,” a law enforcement source on Wednesday said.
He added customs officers would seek legal advice from the Department of Justice to find out whether the winning tickets were liable to forfeiture and if they could collect the prize money and how it would be handled.
On Monday, a team of customs officers was assigned to manually check more than 16,000 lottery tickets with the assistance of staff members at the Jockey Club, the Mark Six organiser. Nearly 600 tickets in total were found to have won prizes.
Another source said the prize money for each winning ticket ranged from tens of Hong Kong dollars to about HK$10,000. “The total prize money involved is nearly HK$70,000,” he said.
He revealed it was the first time such a large number of lottery tickets had been seized in an anti-smuggling operation and for the tickets to be winners.
Each of the seized tickets contained two Mark Six entries worth HK$20 for last Thursday’s lottery draw. The total betting amount of all the tickets was more than HK$320,000.
Hong Kong customs to check 16,000 Mark Six tickets seized in smuggling bust
The box of tickets destined to be sold illegally in Macau and mainland China was among HK$10 million worth of contraband found in a cargo vessel intercepted off Black Point in Tuen Mun around 6.30pm last Wednesday.
The haul included more than 6,000 electronic products such as mobile phones and tablets hidden in multiple boxes. Two mainland crew members, aged 37 and 59, were arrested aboard the vessel.
According to the Customs and Excise Department, the shipment, placed on top of four pallets, was declared to be carrying food.
The consignment was selected for inspection after suspicious images appeared when customs officers checked it with a handheld X-ray scanner.
The department’s Senior Inspector Wong Chi-keung last week said the seized electronic products were subject to mainland tariffs of between 63 per cent and 108 per cent.
Hong Kong police arrest 24, seize goods worth HK$23.7 million in smuggling bust
“Smugglers could have evaded HK$8 million in tariffs if the contraband products were successfully smuggled into the mainland,” he said last Thursday.
Wong added the incident marked the third time in three months that customs officers had found contraband products destined for Macau.
In June, customs officers intercepted a riverboat bound for Macau suspected to be smuggling HK$23 million in cash, marking the first time such a vessel had been used to move a large amount of money into the city.
The cash was seized along with HK$45 million worth of contraband products such as red wine, frozen meat and cosmetic injectables on a Macau-bound vessel that was intercepted in the city’s northwestern waters.
In the first five months of the year, customs officers confiscated HK$380 million worth of contraband products in 25 sea smuggling operations. There were 42 cases totalling HK$370 million worth of illicit goods seized in the same period last year.
