Russell's Catch the Ace lottery jackpot surges past $125K

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RUSSELL — They were counselled by sage lottery pundits to expect Catch the Ace jackpots of no more than $50,000.00 — given their township’s small size — if they were lucky.

But with this weekend’s jackpot tipping the scales at over $125,000, Russell Kin Club organizers say they’ve proven those pundits wrong. Nineteen envelopes remain in play, with six charities benefitting from proceeds of the weekly lottery — including Winchester District Memorial Hospital, Breast Cancer Action Ottawa, Cystic Fibrosis Canada, Osgoode Senior Care Centre, Russell Minor Hockey Association and the Valoris Foundation.

Already, $185,000 has been raised to date for those charitable entities in this year’s Catch the Ace — which paused in March amid the pandemic but resumed Nov. 22. That sum represents 50 percent of each $5 ticket sold, after expenses, explains Russell Kin Club Vice President Doug Anthony. The remaining 50 percent goes into the purse: respectively split 20-30 between the weekly draw and the growing jackpot. (Each weekly draw winner gets to open one of the envelopes in the hopes it contains the jackpot Ace of Spades).

The Kin Club itself “doesn’t take a cent out of it, not a dime,” says Anthony of the game, which was inspired by similar lotteries in Eastern Canada, where jackpots have gone into the millions of dollars.

Each Russell Kin Club Catch the Ace draw takes place Sunday at the Étienne Brûlé brew pub in Embrun.

If the Ace doesn’t go this Sunday, the next draw would take place Dec. 27th, and in that event, organizers are promoting tickets as the perfect Christmas gift. “You can actually buy your tickets for somebody else for Christmas and get a receipt that’s really nicely done … and you can give that in a card or a stocking stuffer,” says Anthony. Even if they don’t win the jackpot, the weekly draw would constitute a nice win as well — lately around $6,000.

Buy tickets online at www.kinclubofrussell.ca and at several retail locations, including Loughlin’s store in Hallville and Winchester Foodland and others.