Taiwan Sports Lottery Corp (運彩科技), a subsidiary of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), said yesterday it would suspend sales of problematic sports lottery tickets in the face of a fraud investigation, company executives said.
The company and its parent group offered an apology for the scandal and promised to remedy the alleged wrongdoing by employee Lin Hao-chin (林昊縉).
“We will suspend sales forthwith of sports lottery products that allow winning betters to divide the sweepstakes among themselves,” Taiwan Sports Lottery president Paul Chai (翟小璧) told a press conference, accompanied by Fubon Financial president Victor Kung (龔天行).
Chai said his company offers two categories of sports lottery products — one promises a fixed cash prize and the other allows winning betters to divide the sweepstake.
The troubled “Da San Yuan” (大三元) and “Da Si Xi” (大四喜) on which Lin allegedly bet unfairly in July and last month fell into the latter category, Chai said.
A preliminary internal probe showed Lin’s actions were the only such occurrence since the products were launched in September last year, Chai said.
Sports lotteries with fixed prizes are the company’s main line of products, accounting for more than 99 percent of revenue, company data showed.
Sales of sports lotteries with fixed-ratio prizes totaled NT$1.37 billion (US$46.44 million) last month, while bet-dividing lottery products accounted for NT$8.8 million, according to Taiwan Sports Lottery.
“We will not put problematic lottery tickets back on the shelves before we can make ensure the game is fair,” Chai said.
The company would conduct a thorough review of related products from their production to their sale, Chai said.
Denying earlier claims that Lin had won NT$2.3 million, Taiwan Sports Lottery said he had won NT$520,000, and has repaid this amount to the company.
The company added that it had decided not to press charges because of concerns about his career.
However, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office launched an investigation into the case on Saturday.
“Taiwan Sports Lottery regrets that decision, which failed to factor in its impact on the company’s reputation and public sentiment,” the company said in a statement.
To make up for Lin’s alleged misdeeds, the company has tried to contact 34 winning ticket holders whose prizes were reduced by Lin’s actions and offered them further prizes ranging from NT$3,000 to NT$130,000, in line with their tax records, the statement said.
Another 124 winners, whose prizes fell below taxation requirements, could contact the company and divide an extra NT$4,276 between them the statement said.
Taiwan Sport Lottery promised to strengthen internal management and personnel training to prevent a recurrence of irregularities and rebuild public confidence in sports lottery products, Chai said.
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
TRAJECTORY: The severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday, and would influence the nation to varying degrees, a forecaster said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it would likely issue a sea warning for Tropical Storm Podul tomorrow morning and a land warning that evening at the earliest. CWA forecaster Lin Ting-yi (林定宜) said the severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving west at 21kph and packing sustained winds of 108kph and gusts of up to 136.8kph, the CWA said. Lin said that the tropical storm was about 1,710km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, with two possible trajectories over the next one
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
RSS