The Town of Hay River has awarded a licence for the next Chase the Ace, and it goes once again to the 2018 South Slave Arctic Winter Games Host Society.
It had the licence for the last Chase the Ace, which concluded in December.
"At the end of the day, we only had one qualified application," said Judy Goucher, the town's senior administrative officer (SAO).
Goucher said two applications were submitted to the town, but one from an unidentified organization failed to even qualify for consideration.
"There are hurdles that organizations who are looking to apply need to meet before their application will be considered and one of those hurdles was not met by that organization," she explained. "They are welcome to apply at a later date."
Goucher noted that the minimum qualifications are laid out in the Chase the Ace Bylaw, and once an organization meets all the minimum qualifications, they get compared to other applications on file.
She declined to reveal the difficulties with the unsuccessful application.
Goucher said an organization having two Chase the Ace licences in a row is permitted by the bylaw.
"And if you look at other communities across Canada who hold Chase the Ace, you'll see that there are a number of repetitive organizations," she noted. "If we had received another qualified application, we may have made a different decision."
Two other organizations picked up applications for a Chase the Ace licence, but did not return filled-out applications to the town.
"So hopefully next time around we'll have some more applications to choose from," said Goucher.
According to the Chase the Ace Bylaw, the factors that "may impact" the awarding of a licence include whether an applicant held a licence in the previous three years.
The SAO said the 2018 South Slave Arctic Winter Games Host Society is looking to start its new Chase the Ace on Jan. 19.
The host society did not make a spokesperson available last week to comment on its new Chase the Ace licence.
The society's first Chase the Ace came to an end on Dec. 1 after 12 weeks.
Angela Jones drew the ace of spades and won a jackpot of $16,018, along with a weekly prize of $849.
The first Chase the Ace in the community was presented in 2016 by the Hay River Curling Club. That lottery ran for 43 weeks and ended with an overall prize of $511,034.