Our staff reporter Wang Zheng reports: Ms. Yuan expressed that winning the prize was quite unexpected. In issue No. 2011093 of the Double Color Ball lottery, a ticket from the No. 63010507 lottery booth located at No. 113 Nan Chuan Xi Road in Xining City, Qinghai Province, won the first prize of 5.714 million yuan with an 8-yuan single bet.
The new signboard was just installed. On the day of the draw, she was preparing to change the signboard of the lottery booth. "The local urban management department required it," said Ms. Yuan. They had been urging for a while, and the old signboard was indeed a bit worn out. Ms. Yuan originally wanted to repair it, but seeing that it would cost a lot, she decided to get a new one.
"Because my place also offers prepaid services for China Unicom phone bills. It is a China Unicom payment point, so they were willing to contribute some money for the new signboard." Ms. Yuan introduced that the new signboard was 6 meters wide, made of aluminum-plastic board, and cost more than 3000 yuan, "I only paid a few hundred yuan." It had the logo of Fucai Lottery, and there was also a section to be arranged with China Unicom's logo. The new signboard was just installed, but the words made by the advertising company had not been mounted yet when the big prize came the next day. Ms. Yuan said she must finish the signboard as soon as possible so that it would look neat and beautiful when the lottery center comes to celebrate and take photos.
The lucky lottery booth won a 5.71 million yuan prize in the Double Color Ball lottery. The first prize winner was a son-in-law who lived with his wife's family. He had been buying lottery tickets here for a while. Ms. Yuan revealed that on the morning of August 13th, he came to the booth to verify if he had won. "He looks around 20 years old, he's our son-in-law who lives with his wife's family," Ms. Yuan said with a smile.
Ms. Yuan used to be a quality inspector at a factory before she was laid off. At that time, her younger brother worked in Shenzhen. "He told me that this industry is good, and he has already developed well in Shenzhen." Following her younger brother's advice, Ms. Yuan applied for her own lottery booth, and now she has been running it for 10 years.
The lottery booth is located at a public transportation hub on a main road with high foot traffic. Next to it is a local welfare institute. "This place used to be a suburb, but later it was included in the urban area," said Ms. Yuan. Due to economic reasons, although the foot traffic is large, the overall sales volume is not much. The current off-season sales are maintained at around 40,000 to 50,000 yuan per month. Although the sales volume is stable, the rent keeps rising, "It has increased three times compared to when I started," Ms. Yuan introduced.
Therefore, while running the lottery booth, she also sells some food items here. "Actually, the food store was opened first, back in 1999, and then I applied for the welfare and sports lotteries."
Used to talk until her mouth was dry every day
She remembered that it was back in 2002, when she first started in this industry, people were not very familiar with or accepting of lotteries, so not many people bought them. To make people accept and buy lottery tickets, Ms. Yuan took the betting machine outside the booth to sell.
Back then, it was indeed very hard. Even so, not many people bought tickets, and she had to actively solicit customers herself. "I would introduce to them how to play the lottery, how the prizes are awarded, and how much the jackpot is," Ms. Yuan said that she talked every day until her mouth was dry.
This situation continued until about half a year after the launch of the Double Color Ball game when people began to recognize lotteries more. And because of the attraction of the Double Color Ball game, the lottery players also recognized her booth. Gradually, Ms. Yuan started placing the betting machine at the entrance of the booth, and later she moved it to its current position, which is further inside the booth.
Through all these years, hardships have accompanied happiness. "My home is near the welfare institute. Sometimes, when I pass by, I see the elderly being taken care of and enjoying their twilight years, and I feel that my work is also meaningful," said Ms. Yuan.