Foundation questions lottery's value

The head of the Consumers' Foundation said Friday that the national lottery profits from the poor only to bolster government coffers.

"With excessive coverage from the media, the twice-a-week lottery has increased social deterioration. It is the happiness of the minority [of lottery operators, the government and a few winners] built on the pain of the majority," Yu Ming-kuo (游明國), chairman of the Consumers' Foundation, said in a conference on the subject held last Friday.

Yu added that calling it the "public welfare" lottery was "highly questionable."

The government claims "26.7 percent of lottery revenue has been spent on social welfare. But half of it will be used as reserves of national annuity (國民年金) and to aid for national healthcare system, the other half will be given to local government's."

While the computerized Public Welfare Lottery (電腦公益彩券) has been up and running for less than two months, pundits are concerned about its impact on society.

Some of the harshest comments came from Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), who hinted the "social landslide" should be eliminated early last week. Others have proposed that the frequency of lottery drawings should be reduced from twice to once a week.

But by the next day, broad public appeal forced Lu to eat her words: She said did not intend to ax the legal gambling, but was just encouraging Taiwanese people to "make money with their consciences," instead of dreaming of becoming rich overnight.

Minister of Finance Lee Yung-san (李庸三) has jumped on the bandwagon, saying "Many countries have a lottery, but Taiwan is too crazy about it."

He also advised the public to stay focused on work and asked TaipeiBank to review its advertising policies.

One government official said the lottery has a role to play in society.

"The Public Welfare Lottery has its legitimate and legal place in society," said Huang Tien-mu (黃天牧), director of the Bureau of Monetary Affairs under the finance ministry.

"One of the goals of issuing the lottery is to suppress illegal gambling. The government can provide a fairer lottery system. The lottery comes with original sin -- the question is whether it's successful overall. The government will look into any negative side effects," Huang said.

Meanwhile, another pundit called for deregulation of the gambling sector as a way of cooling lotto fever.

"The lottery does not create any economic resources -- it is only a kind of wealth redistribution. The government should therefore reduce the frequency of lottery drawings and deregulate gambling in the private sector. Following deregulation, the gambling frenzy may cool down," said Wu Chung-chi (吳忠吉), a professor of economics at National Taiwan University.

But an executive at lottery operator TaipeiBank disagreed with talk of reducing the frequency of drawings.

"Nearly 190 countries run lottery drawings twice a week," said Richard Yang (楊瑞東), vice president and general manager of TaipeiBank's lottery department. "Since the domestic lottery has only been running for one month, we should not jump to conclusions. Furthermore, if the drawing was changed to once a week, the jackpot would rise and stimulate the public to buy even more lottery tickets," Yang said.

An executive from the Consumers' Foundation also questioned the legality of lottery advertising.