After more than 48 and hundreds of thousands tickets sold, a game of chase the ace in Inverness, N.S. will soon come to an end.
Thousands of cars lined the streets in the small town where people headed to one of three venues selling tickets.
Lineups were long at the Royal Canadian Legion, the local hockey arena and an outdoor concert venue known as Broad Cove, north of the small town as the grey sky occasionally opened up to offer a heavy downpour.
Inside the arena, a local rock band performed before former premier Rodney MacDonald took the stage, fiddle in hand, to entertain more than 1,000 people with traditional jigs and reels.
Many ticket holders could be seen signing their names on stacks of colourful tickets, while others simply sat with their neighbours and gabbed as the music played on.
A cheer went up just after 3 p.m. when an organizer announced that $1,176,000 worth of tickets had been sold, with sales continuing until 5 p.m.
About 25,000 people were expected to descend on the community for the final draw in the popular weekly fundraiser.
With just five cards left in the deck, organizers say they'll keep drawing tickets until they have a winner.
The RCMP say they have some concerns about the safety of the participants, many of whom will be carrying large sums of cash.
Chase the Ace is similar to a 50-50 draw with $5 tickets, but there's a twist. Instead of giving half the ticket sales to the winner, they get 20 per cent. Another 30 per cent is added to a growing pot that can be won if the ticket holder draws the ace of spades from a deck of cards.
The local Royal Canadian Legion plans to split the proceeds from the draw with the Inverness Cottage Workshop, which provides skills training for adults with intellectual disabilities.
With files from the Canadian Press and CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald.
