A mysterious advertisement posted recently in various local newspapers as well on TV channels yesterday turned out to be a promotional commercial for the TaipeiBank's (
The Chinese-language ad -- reading nothing but "Shiao Ling, will you marry me? (
The lotto-issuing bank gave the answer yesterday with a new punch line, reading "If you win the Big Lotto's jackpot, you can be as romantic [as to make such an overture] (中大樂透, 你也可以這樣浪漫)."
"We wanted to present an ad that was as eye-catching as possible, or our efforts to promote the new Big Lotto would be totally fruitless, especially during the heated presidential campaign," the bank's vice president Richard Yang (
TaipeiBank is slated to officially kick-start sales of the new lotto today, which features a jackpot of as much as NT$1 billion, along with six other smaller prizes, by launching a 49-vehicle promotional motorcade in the afternoon.
The NT$1 billion jackpot will be available if the new ticket's sales amount to NT$1.8 billion in total, the bank said, noting that the chance of winning the grand prize is one in 13.98 million.
During the first eight draws in January, TaipeiBank plans to impose a guaranteed jackpot of NT$80 million each draw regardless of the ticket's accumulated sales, the bank said.
Drawings for the Big Lotto, which costs NT$50 per ticket, will be made on Mondays and Thursdays, as opposed to the current computerized lotteries, with drawings on Tuesdays and Fridays with a higher chance of winning: one in 5.24 million.
Similar to the computerized lotto, the new lotto picks six numbers out of a total of 49 numbers.
With three winning numbers, the smallest prize for the Big Lotto, however, will be NT$400, double of that for the current computerized lotto.
The new Big Lotto represents TaipeiBank's ambition of boosting the nation's lottery sales. The bank yesterday earmarked a minimum goal of NT$430 million in sales for each drawing.
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