Local lottery craze losing momentum

The nation's fondness for lotteries eased last year when punters spent only NT$71.88 billion (US$2.2 billion) on lotto tickets, the lowest amount over the past four years, including 2003 when the SARS epidemic hit.

Lotto-generated funds allocated to finance public welfare projects, including health insurance programs and retirement pensions, amounted to NT$20.35 billion last year, the Ministry of Finance said in a press release yesterday.

Taipei Fubon Bank (台北富邦銀行) was awarded the first five-year contract to begin issuing lotto tickets in Taiwan in January 2002.

Among the eight different kinds of lottery tickets issued, Big Lotto (大樂透) proved the most popular by securing 50.5 percent of sales last year, followed by Lotto (樂透彩) at 23.67 percent and scratch-off lottery games at 16.4 percent.

The accumulated sales of lotto tickets from 2002 to last year topped NT$337.54 billion, or an average of NT$84.38 billion annually. The aggregated profits totaled NT$97.46 billion, the ministry said.

Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀), the nation's largest credit-card issuer, on Dec. 21 last year outbid three rivals, including Taipei Fubon Bank, to win the seven-year contract to issue lotto tickets from Jan. 1 next year.

Chinatrust promised to contribute NT$2.0868 billion (US$64.4 million) in lotto-generated funds to the state's coffers every year.