An 80-year-old widow has scooped the equivalent of almost US$1 million in Myanmar’s state lottery, reported local media.
Khin Tint, who lives in a bamboo house in Hinthada township in Ayeyarwady region, told Eleven Media that she borrowed money to pay for the winning 1,000-kyat ($0.66) ticket.
On July 1 she won 1.5 billion kyats ($997,000)—the jackpot of Myanmar’s lottery, known as Aung Bar Lay—which was confirmed to Myanmar Mix at the lottery headquarters in downtown Yangon.
After the death of her husband, who was a soldier in Myanmar’s military, Khin Tint began receiving a pension of 8,750 kyats ($5.80), reported Eleven Media.
“I earned my living by selling Myanmar snacks to look after my sons,” she told the news outlet. “Now, I’ve been earning nothing and living on my sons' charity.”
It’s probably safe to say those days are over for Khin Tint, who said she would settle a 6,000-kyat debt using a miniscule fraction of the prize.
“All of my life, I’ve never won a prize,” she added. “I prayed to win because I wanted to donate and live-on happily.”
Her change of fortunes is a rare story in the unregulated business of Aung Bar Lay, which raises tens of millions of dollars in state revenue every year from the poorest people in society.
In an August 2018 feature, Frontier magazine looked at the wide network of wholesales, distributors and retailers who each swell the final ticket price by taking a cut.
Though State Lottery Directorate director Kyaw Thant Lwin told the magazine that the system of disbursing tickets was fair and transparent, some feel that a handful of large distributors get an unfair advantage from the department.
