Goulds Chase the Ace postponed due to duplicate tickets, thousands turned away

Wednesday night's million-dollar Chase the Ace draw in the Goulds area of St. John's has been postponed after provincial regulators stepped in.

Thousands of people left the neighbourhood after Service NL, the government department that regulates lotteries in the province, launched an investigation into multiple tickets printed with the same number.

Auditors were onsite late in the afternoon, working with volunteer organizers to investigate "possible irregularities."

Chase the Ace is a lottery that's become popular in Atlantic Canada in recent years, often used for community fundraisers. Each week, tickets are sold and one winner gets the chance to draw one card from a deck.

Every week the ace of spades goes unpicked, the jackpot carries over.

After news broke of four tickets having the same number, CBC News spoke with Tony Burke, the owner of the printing shop responsible for the tickets.

Burke said only four duplicate tickets were sold.

However, CBC then received a call from a second person who also claimed to have duplicate tickets. The man, who asked to remain anonymous, bought his tickets in the morning and checked them after hearing reports of duplicate numbers on the evening news.

In a photo sent to CBC, three of the man's tickets contain identical numbers. That same number was also found on the four tickets reported by NTV's Ryan Harding earlier in the evening.

'Need to take a pause'

Service NL immediately launched an investigation.

"How exactly we do the investigation —  do we need to go through each ticket? I'm not sure we need to do that. But we do need to look at printing procedures, we do need to look at the way tickets are handled," Service NL Minister Perry Trimper told CBC Wednesday evening.

Organizers told the crowd a makeup draw could take place in "a day or two," but it seems unlikely.

"We really need to take a pause and determine exactly what's wrong here," said Trimper.

"Obviously this runs counter completely to running an event that has the trust of the public."

There were more misprinted tickets than the seven reported by local media, Trimper said. Early indications chalk it up to an error in how the tickets are generated and printed.

Latest Chase the Ace drama

The controversy added even more drama to an already exhilarating draw — one that drew people to the area as early as 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Susan Doiron was one of the first to buy a ticket Wednesday. She was in line at 6 a.m. for a draw that ended up cancelled.

"What about people from out of province? People who might be able to come back?" she said. "I'm all good with it, I'm just not sure what to do with the tickets I already bought."

Despite waking up at 4 a.m. to trek into Goulds from her rural home in Mobile, Doiron said she will come back for the draw whenever it takes place.

Doiron was not alone at 6 a.m., as a line had already formed. Some people, including a family who arrived in an RV, camped out overnight for the first crack at tickets.

Chase the Ace jackpots have topped $1 million in Atlantic Canada before, including a $2.9 million jackpot in Sydney, N.S.

• Sydney Chase the Ace error creates 2 winners, jackpot still in play

Sydney was also home to ticket controversy, when it was determined two people held tickets with identical winning numbers. Both people were given the chance to draw for the ace, but neither won.

Jackpot has already broken records

Service NL confirmed that if the jackpot hit $1 million — with early indications suggesting it did — it will be the first Chase the Ace jackpot in the province to reach that mark.

Last week, the payout would have been just over $800,000 if the ace was drawn. That broke the record of a $733,000 Chase the Ace jackpot won in Bay de Verde in the fall of 2016.

The Goulds event is a fundraiser for St. Kevin's Parish and run entirely by a team of volunteers.