The Ministry of Finance will conduct a final review of the lottery system today, according to an executive at the Taipei Bank (台北銀行).
"The Ministry of Finance will conduct a final test Tuesday to determine when sales will begin and the date of the first draw. Therefore, whether the lottery can be launched according to our previous plan on Jan. 10 is still undetermined," said Richard Yang (楊瑞東), a manager at the Taipei Bank, yesterday.
"Following the final test, the result will be announced officially on Wednesday," Yang said.
Taipei Bank won the contract from the ministry to offer the three different public interest lotteries for five years starting in January 2002. But the bank is required to submit the lottery issuing plan every year to the ministry before actually selling the lottery tickets.
If all proceeds as planned, lottery drawings will be aired 7:55pm on Tuesdays and Fridays starting Jan. 18, while the lottery is scheduled to go on sale starting Jan. 10 in thousands of retail locations, including gas stations, banks and video stores all over the country.
Executives of the Lottery Technology Service (樂彩公司) -- the lottery company providing the computer and lottery system -- are optimistic about the final test.
"We are not expecting any hitches for the lottery."
The Taipei Bank has been extremely cautious on the matter. Until all distribution and issuance operations have been completed, the bank will not announce its final approval, an executive at the Lottery Technology Service was quoted as saying.
Were the launch date postponed for any reason, it's likely that the first lottery drawing on Jan. 18 will be postponed, the company executive said.
The jackpot for the NT$50 computerized tickets will accumulate to a maximum of NT$250 million should no winner claim the prizes after five consecutive drawings. The chances of winning the top-prize are 2 million to one, according to Taipei Bank president Jesse Ding (丁予康).
Besides the computerized lottery, Taipei Bank will also offer three "mini lotto" (吉時樂) games. The scratch lottery tickets will be offered every month at NT$100 each, with a winning rate between 5 percent and 45 percent.
The top prize for the three games are slated to be NT$1 million, NT$800,000 and NT$300,000 respectively. According to the Lottery Technology Service, the total chances of winning a prize of the three types of mini lotteries are 21.7 percent, 25.7 percent and 31 percent respectively.
RSS