Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has revealed that due to COVID-19 related impacts, efforts to sell lottery tickets have struggled with only roughly a quarter of the six million tickets sold so far.
The President discussed how the lack of sales may be down to ticket sellers having been unable to hit the streets because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as economic effects that have hit the country which he believes has resulted in punters becoming somewhat less willing to spend $22.50 on tickets, roughly a week’s wages for the lowest-paid workers.
As it stands, López Obrador is currently facing the possibility that the lottery may lose money rather than achieving its stated goal of collecting funds to buy medical equipment upon its scheduled drawing on September 15.
Roughly 1.5m tickets have been sold so far which equates to about 38% of the guaranteed prize money of $90m. Furthermore, the government could yet find itself in further financial difficulties when administrative costs are added to the equation.
As a result the president urged businessmen to buy blocks of tickets and hand them out to their employees or at schools, and unions to hand them out to their members: “There is little time left until Sept. 15, and we have to sell those tickets.”
