New Brazilian lottery pockets $1.9 million in first week

A new state-run Brazilian lottery entitled Dia da Sorte made a cool U$1.9 million in the first week of operation, surpassing that of established lottery brand Quina (U$1.7 million).

Created by the state-run Caixa Econômica Federal, Dia da Sorte differs from Quina, with the new format offering less value but more prizes. Quina pays U$540,000 in prizes (31% of the collection), while the new lottery pays about U$135,000 in prizes, a ratio of 7.1% collection, Games Magazine Brasil reported.

The Superintendent of Loterias da Caixa (Lotex), Gilson Braga, said when launching the new lottery that the goal was to “move the imagination” of the Brazilian population.

“We have detected that within our lotteries we needed to make a change. We always want to bring improvements to our bettors” he added.

The Brazilian federal government has previously cited interest in partially opening the sector to private initiatives, with the attempt to privatise the state-owned Lotex brand underway since September 2017. However the process is suffering difficulties, with resistance from Caixa Econômica Federal.

Further difficulties emerged regarding the term and format of the concession, leading to the government halving the expected concession from U$270 million to U$147 million, and reducing the term that the private company will have to explore the business, from 25 to 15 years.