January lottery landmarks – examples of starting the year with a bang

It’s the opportunity to start afresh – personally or professionally. For a lot of South African citizens, it’s a chance to keep doing well what they did the previous year. For others, it can mean a crucial January juncture that yields time and resources to do the things they were unable to do previously. Compatriots of Cape Town, residents of Rustenburg and all other parts of the country can look to the lottery from other lands as examples of new beginnings. Just last year, a person in West Vancouver, Canada, won in excess of nine million Canadian dollars on the Lotto 6/49. If you are struggling to work out the rand value of that sum, well, it’s well into the R120 millions based on the current exchange rate. Suffice to say, the winner pondered the previous year and looked ahead to the new one with a very different viewpoint based on his or her recent winnings. There was a similar example towards the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017 in the United Kingdom, too. There, someone walked away with well over 25 million pounds. That’s pretty much half a billion rand for South Africans – certainly the equivalent of a small fortune. In South Africa, day in and day out, week in and week out, throughout January and the remaining 11 months of the year, people who enter the Lotto, Daily Lotto or Powerball are given the opportunity to start their year or month with a big win. At the start of last year, the winner of R13 million in mid-January took their sweet time in coming forward for their winnings. There was some initial concern that they wouldn’t, but they eventually did. “We hope that the winner will make contact with us soon. We encourage all players, especially players from the east of Johannesburg who recently visited the Atlas Mall, to check their tickets,” said Lotto representative Busisiwe Msizi at the time. “Becoming an overnight millionaire can be an overwhelming experience to anyone. Our priority is to help the winner digest the news and enjoy every step of this life changing win.” Over in the United States, to get 2021 off on a formidable note, Washington resident Carlos Mabry was declared the US Powerball’s first millionaire of the year. The big announcement was made during ‘Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2021’ – a fantastic show that kept thousands, if not 10s of thousands, of viewers entertained throughout. Needless to say, though, Mabry was probably the most entertained. While South Africa didn’t get as a high-profile lottery winner story to kick off 2021, it has had these in the past and probably will in the future. Opportunity is never really lost on the mense of Mzansi to get in on a good thing. The old adage of ‘you have to be in it to win it’ rings impressively true with Durbanites, Capetonians and Johannesburgers time and time again.