Chase The Ace fever hits Cape Breton once again

Chase the Ace déjà vu Chase the Ace fever is once again spreading across Cape Breton, with a jackpot surpassing $500,000.

Last summer the fundraising game Chase The Ace had people migrating west to Inverness every weekend. This time, traffic is flowing in the opposite direction to Sydney.

The Ashby Legion Branch 138 and the Horizon Achievement Centre, a vocation training and employment centre for adults with mental disabilities, are working together on the Chase The Ace fundraiser. The money raised will be split between the two.

Huge crowds have been gathering on Saturdays to see if the ace of spades will be drawn and this weekend six different venues will be set up for those hoping to cash in on all the fun.

“I'm getting calls here during the day from people from Moncton, Halifax, asking ‘how do we get to your legion from the Holiday Inn? We are bringing people in from other parts of the country,’” says Larry Wall, legion bartender.

With a cash prize of over a half million dollars, excitement has really started to build around the game.

“They say lighting doesn't strike twice, but in this case it certainly has,” says organizer Stephen Tobin. “I think that we're sort of defying the odds in a sense that this has happened again and it's happened exponentially.”

Last year, the woman who won the big Inverness Chase The Ace took home nearly $1.8 million, an amount nobody thought could be reached again, but the lucky lottery in Sydney is well on its way.

“When we look at Inverness, when they reached the amount of card we're at now, their jackpot was $100,000. The jackpot is more than four times the amount that it was in Inverness,” says Tobin.

Inverness is currently 11 weeks into a brand new Chase The Ace. The jackpot there is just over $12,000, but some locals are opting to come to Sydney to try and cash in on the bigger prize.

“It's interesting to see the turn of events that's happening on the island,” says Tobin. “But certainly people are coming from all over and our venues are full to capacity.”

Many organizations have tried to duplicate the success of Inverness’ game. Tobin admits it's a hard thing to do, but says there was a turning point for his draw.

“I think it comes down to chance,” says Tobin. “It's special circumstances that have to align to get this big. I think what we've learned that once it hits $100,000 that's really when people sit up and start paying attention.”

With 12 cards remaining someone could be walking away with a lot of money, if the ace is drawn on Saturday.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kyle Moore