The draft act governing the sale and management of sports lotteries drew wide criticism from lawmakers on the Education and Culture Committee yesterday, with some suggesting that the Sports Affairs Council (SAC) raise the percentage of revenue designated for prizes.
Sports lotteries are currently regulated by the Act Governing Public Welfare Lotteries (公益彩券發行條例), which stipulates that a majority of the earnings be reserved for public welfare programs. The SAC proposal calls for using 75 percent of the revenue as prize money and 90 percent of the profit for investment in sports.
Chinese Nationalist Party legislators Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) and Liao Cheng-ching (廖正井) yesterday suggested that the council increase prizes as a way to encourage people to turn from illegal gambling networks to legitimate sports lotteries.
They said that with more than 90 percent of the revenue from underground gambling going to the bettors, the sports lotteries offer lower odds in comparison.
Liao added that the lotteries should not be sold by Taipei Fubon Bank, but by a state-run gambling company.
Revenues from the sports lotteries last year amounted to NT$5.2 billion, which was less than a half of the first year goal of NT$10.7 billion estimated by Taipei Fubon, Liao said.
As the bank has not actively marketed the sport lotteries, few people know how to place bets, he said.
“To win the prizes from betting on Chinese Professional Baseball League [CPBL] games, one has to bet on three games at a time, including two CPBL games and one other pro-baseball game from the US or Japan. This is too complicated,” he said.
KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) also voiced their opposition to having a bank handle the sports lotteries.
“Banks are not designed to sell sports lotteries, which is essentially a highly risky business,” Kuan said. “To avoid risks, banks can only choose the most conservative way to run sports lotteries.”
Hung also questioned what the council planned to do with the profit earned from sports lotteries.
“When you have money, everybody wants a share of it,” Hung said. “Some of the things you plan to fund [in the act] are too broad. I am concerned that they could end up in the pockets of a lot of people but not the athletes or any sports program or facility.”
DPP legislators Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) and Kao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) urged the council to actively oversee the operations of sports associations to see where the funding goes.
In response, SAC Minister Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) said the proposal to increase the prizes for the sports lotteries could be studied.
Tai said the council entrusted the bank to take charge of the sale of lotteries because Taiwan does not have an organization tasked with handling gambling. However, he agreed that it would be better to set up an organization to regulate sports lotteries.
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