The last time the Rotary Club has this much trouble selling house-lottery tickets it was 1987 and no one had heard of a lottery for a house.
So far the Fort William Rotary Club has been able to sell 5,400 tickets for its annual house lottery, which is still shy of the 7,000 mark.
"Tough and tense is the word of the day," said Bob Hookham, the Rotary Club chair. "Other than the first year, this is the most trouble (we’ve had). The first year was a new house lottery in Thunder Bay back in 1987. It took people a while to get used to a house lottery."
The Rotary Club has reached its break-even point – 5,000 tickets. With 1,600 more tickets to sell, Rotary Club members aren’t likely feeling comfortable just yet.
Hookham said there is already support for the 2010 house lottery and the organization is in the process of picking out a lot for the house to be built on.
But it requires the support of the Rotary Club to go ahead with the project, and Hookham said it looks positive that the club would support another lottery.
"Our break-even point was 5,000 tickets. We are in the positive mark and we are putting money back into the community. Not as much as we would like to see but there is some positive in this."
For more than 23 years the Rotary Club donated $3 million to local and district charities.
Hookham said that Tuesday, until 8 p.m., is the last day to buy public tickets, but tickets will still be available at the Airlane Hotel from 10 a.m. to 11:45a.m. Wednesday.
The draw for the winner will take place Wednesday at the Airlane hotel.
Tickets are $100 each and could be purchased at the Airlane Motor Hotel.
The draw takes place at noon.
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