The allure of cold, hard cash — especially when it falls freely onto your lap — has seen swarms of people getting in line at Singapore Pools branches and authorized retailers across the island.
This year’s Toto New Year Draw prize, which snowballed to S$9.7 million (US$7.3 million) after the three previous draws failed to turn out Group 1 Prize winners, is apparently the highest estimated jackpot of its kind to date, Yahoo News Singapore noted.
The draw today is Singapore Pools’ second Toto New Year Draw, after the first on Jan 3, 2014 had a prize pot of S$5 million (US$3.7 million). Nevertheless, it’s not Singapore Pools’ biggest overall Toto draw, as the Toto Hong Bao Draw in 2016 offered a prize pot of S$13.9 million (US$10.4 million).
Needless to say, snaking queues were spotted at crowd favorite spots, including one such joint at Yishun Avenue 5, which Channel NewsAsia noted has been hailed as one of the luckiest betting outlets in the country. The bets, which opened since Tuesday, will close today at 9pm, with the draw happening at 9:30pm.
Knowing Singaporeans and our penchant for long lines, we can only expect the queues to get longer as evening approaches.
