Public Welfare Lottery sales drop in Q1

Public Welfare Lottery sales for the first quarter were NT$14.16 billion (US$425.67 million), down from NT$16.56 billion a year ago, statistics released by the Ministry of Finance showed yesterday.

The 14 percent drop could have been caused by the frequent crashes of the ticketing system run by Taiwan Lottery Co (台灣彩券公司), a subsidiary of Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控).

Repeated computer failures and mismanagement led Taiwan Lottery president Chang Ruu-tian (張汝恬) to resign from her post earlier this month.

Of the first quarter revenues, NT$4 billion will be allocated to government institutions, including NT$1.8 billion to the Ministry of Interior, NT$200 million to the Bureau of National Health Insurance, and NT$200 million to county governments, the finance ministry said.

Meanwhile, to boost sales of Big Lotto (大樂透), Taiwan Lottery chairman Oliver Shang (尚瑞強) yesterday announced a drawing would be held with 200 round-trip tickets to Hong Kong as prizes.

From today to June 1, people who buy at least NT$200 in Big Lotto tickets but do not win can enter the drawing by visting the company's Web site or by mail.

Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀) became the lottery sales operator on Jan. 1. It has had at least a dozen system failure since then, including large-scale computer crashes and erroneous reporting of lottery prizes.