Cornwall selling Chase the Ace tickets in advance, at drive-thru

The North River Fire Department and the Kingston Legion are doing things a bit different with their weekly Chase the Ace draw in Cornwall.

Instead of dealing with large crowds and people trying to buy tickets all at the same time, they've made some changes to give ticket buyers a few options to get in on the draw.

A drive-thru has been set up at the North River Fire Department where each Saturday people can buy their $5 tickets.

"Our drive-thru here has been a very big favourite with the people coming through. They don't have to get out of their car. They just cruise through. There's no lineups," said Lt. Dean Smith.

The other option is purchasing tickets ahead of time at gas stations and grocery stores.

But the biggest change is if you aren't there when your ticket is drawn, you can still claim your prize.

Aiming to cut down on crowds 

Smith says the idea with the changes was cut back the crowds which is a problem other Island communities have had in the past.

"They've had trouble with capacity and the amount of people that are trying to buy tickets at one time," said Smith.

"We seen the advantage to pre-selling them ahead of time so that we don't get a big influx of people trying to buy tickets at one time."

Cornwall's Chase the Ace is the largest one on P.E.I.

Smith says he hopes it stays that way for a while but realizes it is the luck of the draw.

"There's a local one in Charlottetown. It's gone three times since we started ours. There's another one in Charlottetown that went last week. It was around $4,500. We're very lucky that our pot continues to grow and no one's found the ace yet."

The North River Fire Department and the Kingston Legion expected their Chase the Ace jackpot to reach $30,000 Saturday night.