Costa Rica is planning to gradually resume its lottery services in the first week of May in order to support the social programs that depend on the draws. National Lottery draws will restart on May 5, while Chances draws will resume on May 8, only on Fridays.
The Board of Directors of the Social Protection Board (JPS) has revealed that, even when they resume activities, they will not stop the subsidy to lottery vendors and will complete the remaining payments in the next couple of months.
The JPS announced in the first week of April that it had deposited part of the subsidy. According to decree JD256, 1,600 vendors received the $550,000 subsidy funded with resources from the board.
Esmeralda Britton, president of the JPS, explained: “We want to ease the vendors’ mind. We’ll keep the subsidy for two more months because we understand that this is the only income that most of them have.”
The JPS will follow recommendations from the health sector in order to protect vendors from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will analyze “possible scenarios in detail” since “these are decisions based on the country’s situation.”
Britton added that they will ensure that actions “comply with sanitary restrictions to protect the health of each and every” lottery vendor in Costa Rica. The JPS will also release information about which measures they should implement before the draws restart in May.