• The Mandarin term “新加坡大彩” is a paraphrase of the English term “The Singapore Sweep”. The Singapore Sweep Lottery (also known as Big Sweep) is similar to 4D or Toto.
• It is conducted once a month, with 3.5 million sets of seven-digit numbers for sale, each sold at $3. The draw is held on the first Wednesday of every month at 6:30pm, with ticket sales stopping at 6pm on the day of the draw.
• The Big Sweep was first held by Singapore Pools Pte. Ltd in 1969 to raise funds for the first National Stadium. Each ticket cost $1, and the first prize was $400,000 then.
• In 1981, the first prize was increased to $600,000. In 1982, the first prize was increased to $1 million, and the price of each ticket to $2. In 2004, the first prize was doubled to $2 million. In 2013, the first prize was increased to $2.3 million.
• In 1995, more prizes were included in the Big Sweep. From 1998, the Big Sweep was relaunched with 15 categories of prizes, including First, Second and Third prizes, Jackpot Prizes, Lucky Prizes, Gift Prizes, Consolation Prizes, Three-Digit Prize and Premium Prize. In the same year, Singapore Pools pledged to donate the proceeds of the game to the construction of the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay.
• Currently, the price of each ticket is $3. The prize structure includes one each of the First, Second, and Third Prize, ten each of the Jackpot Prizes and Lucky Prizes, thirty each of the Gift Prize and Consolation Prize, and 50 each of the Participant Prize, as well as 2D Delight Prizes.
• In 2018, the Big Sweep went electronic. Instead of pre-printed tickets, lottery tickets would be printed on-demand at betting stations.

After the launch of computerised betting for the Big Sweep, tickets will be printed upon request. Customers can approach counter staff at betting stations to buy Big Sweep tickets. The counter staff will then use the same machine for 4D and Toto tickets to print out the lottery tickets with a set of 7 numbers. (Lianhe Zaobao, 23/6/2018)