HALIFAX – By now, just about every Nova Scotian know the game, and the money that some lucky Nova Scotians are taking home from winning ‘Chase the Ace.’
It’s a game that one Cole Harbour church is hoping they can cash in on. The roof of Saint Vincent de Paul is in rough shape and desperately needs help.
READ MORE: Results are in: Chase the Ace crowds brought in nearly $6 million
“We’ve noticed lately some leaks and damage that has been done over the years so we did some quotes to find out how we were going to fix the roof and they’re telling us we need to replace the roof,” said Dave Stockil, chair of the fundraising committee at St. Vincent de Paul Parish.
The replacement comes with a price tag of $400,000, money that isn’t easy to raise through small donations. The church is hoping to collect funds by joining in on the popularity of Chase the Ace.
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“The more money that we can raise at Chase the Ace, 50 per cent of that goes back into the church fund for the roof, 20 per cent goes to the winning ticket and 30 per cent goes to the draw of drawing the ace of spades,” said Stockil.
“A pretty small probability”
Thousands of people traveled to Inverness over several weekends this fall to try and bring home the jackpot, but with the game becoming so popular, are the chances of winning even worth playing?
“If you say sell 50,000 tickets for the first time, then the chance of having your ticket drawn if you just bought one ticket would be one in 50,000,” said Dalhousie math professor Dr. Jason Brown.
“Then picking the ace of spades is one out of 52, which would be about one in 250,000, or one in a quarter-million.”
“It’s a pretty small probability.”
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Brown says the odds of winning Chase the Ace are still much better than playing the lottery.
“It’s a very small chance of winning. You’d have better chances of something else happening during the day, but it happens to someone. Eventually someone chooses the ace and they win,” he said.
A Nova Scotia chance-taking game
Chase the Ace is still relatively new. It was started in Nova Scotia nearly four years ago by Eric White, who was looking to raise money to upgrade his community’s ball field.
The first game White held raised $229,000, the second brought in $49,000 and the third game raised just over $19,000.
White is surprised how quickly the game took off.
“Some areas have done really well off of Chase the Ace and its great to see. That money goes right back into the community,” he said.
Service Nova Scotia confirms Chase the Ace was first licensed in Nova Scotia in 2012 and has grown in popularity each and every year since. There have been roughly 340 licenses issued for the game since 2012, 40 of which have been issued since September of 2015.
It’s hoped the widely-popular game can help raise some much needed money for the church to replace the roof, and bring more awareness to the parish.
“We’re discovering that the Chase the Ace is a great opportunity for people to come back to the church and socialize,” Stockil added.
The next Chase the Ace game at St. Vincent de Paul will be held on Friday, December 11. The game will be moving to Saturday nights in the new year to better accommodate more who want to take part.
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