As with most lottery draws around the world, if the top division prize isn’t won in the Hong Kong Mark 6 Lottery then it effectively rolls over to the next draw. There are some slight differences between the Hong Kong Mark 6 Lottery and other lotteries however. The Hong Kong Mark 6 Lottery has Snowballs and Jackpots, these come into play on special days and when no one wins the first and second division prizes.
So if no lottery players match six, or five and the extra ball in the Hong Kong Mark 6 Lottery, all prize money that would have been paid out for the prizes will be added to a Jackpot in the next draw. If there are winners of the first prize in the following Hong Kong Mark 6 Lottery draw then the winners will scoop the jackpot fund too. This is effectively a rollover and in such cases first division lottery prizes can build up into the tens of millions.
Hong Kong Mark 6 Lottery Snowballs work differently to this, and are effectively Hong Kong’s version of Superdraws or Mega Jackpots. For every Hong Kong Mark 6 Lottery draw, a small percentage of the ticket price is deducted. This money goes into the Snowball Pool and on special draws this Snowball Pool is added to the first division prize.
Snowball draws on the Hong Kong Mark 6 Lottery take place several times a year with the Hong Kong Jockey Club deciding when Snowball draws take place. They are often times to coincide with public holidays or special festival such as Easter Snowball draws, New Year Snowball draws and Christmas Snowball draws.
Both Jackpots and particularly Snowball draws attract a lot of interest and ticket sales and enthusiasm for the lottery increases for these bumper prizes, perpetuating the big jackpots with high ticket sales pushing first division prizes even higher than expected.