GUYANA Lottery Company General Manager, Ms. Tracy Lewis yesterday announced a number of new introductions.At a press conference, held at the Robb Street, Georgetown Office, she said the innovations include instant ticket price points, as well as promotions in a varied product mix of daily lotto games which have resulted in many happy winners.
Lewis said the company launched its first $500 instant ticket game, 10 times the money with a top prize of $1M, which took the market by storm and sold out within six weeks.
According to the General Manager, 2014 will see the company conducting intensive market research throughout the country to identify and implement games of chance that are unique to Guyana.
The new year will also see a new terminal game as well as another instant ticket game, which offers cars as prizes. The terminal roll-out plan, which will ensure that the company’s products are available through Guyana, remains high on their list of priorities.
She further noted that there is a need for the company to educate players to take care of their tickets after purchase, as the new ‘Abrazo’ machines print tickets on ‘thermal paper,’ which she explained is a special fine type that is coated with a chemical that changes colour when exposed to heat.
It is the most common printing technology for retail cash receipts, POS terminal and ATM receipts and is used worldwide for these purposes.

SPECIAL CARE
This requires that players take special care of their tickets, which should not be carried in pockets, wallets or be exposed to water or heat. Players also need to ensure they write their names and addresses on the back of the ticket, as it is a bearer instrument, meaning that the person whose name is on it will be considered the winner and will, subsequently, be awarded the prize and, not necessarily, the person who bought the ticket.
Results for all games can be accessed on the Lottery Company’s website, Facebook page, daily newspapers as well as by listening to the radio.
Lewis reminded players that they have 90 days to redeem their prizes and she took the opportunity to present a winner’s cheque of $22M to Ms. Sheron Stephens, a housewife from West Coast Demerara, who was blissfully unaware that she was a multimillionaire, until her sister informed her about an unclaimed ticket, for which the validity period was about to expire.
It was while checking the date as well as the ticket vendor information, Stephens realised that she had bought one that day from that seller and the numbers on it matched the winning ones.

(Jimmy Roos)