Lottery fever continues as ticket sales keep climbing

Sales of Public Welfare Lottery tickets have once again topped NT$1 billion and pundits say the buying frenzy is unlikely to end soon.

"My guess is that the frenzy will last at least six to twelve months," said Lin Yi-cheng (林以正), a psychology professor at National Taiwan University.

"The main reason why the buying frenzy continues is because Taiwanese sees riches as the only measurement of success -- nothing else counts," Lin said.

The ticket sales have topped NT$1.02 billion in the fourth edition. A total of NT$954 million worth of tickets were sold in the third edition. The first two issues sold NT$962 million and NT$776 million respectively.

"Unlike in countries like the US, where people respect social values like professionalism and hard work, many people in Taiwan measure their social status or value in terms of money. The more money the make, the more status they are," Lin said.

Despite the fact that the odds of hitting the lottery jackpot are very low, many people tend to keep on believing that they will win, according to Lin. "It's called `delusory control' which is a psychological phenomenon that is commonly seen in ordinary people."

Additionally, the economic recession and a gradually widening gap between rich and poor also prompt people to bet on lotteries to get wealthy quickly, Lin said.

The frenzied investment in the stock market over the past few years provides a good example of the fact that Taiwanese want to get rich the fast way, another pundit said.

"No other stock market in the world has as many investors as Taiwan's -- in terms of the per capita figure." said Lee Tong-how (李桐豪), a finance professor at National Chengchi University.

There are more than seven million brokerage accounts for investing in the stock market in Taiwan.

Almost every household in Taiwan has an account, on average.

"The lottery game will not hurt the economy. On the contrary, it could be of some benefit to the economy," Lee said.

Richard Yang (楊瑞東), vice president and general manager of TaipeiBank's lottery department, is optimistic about the venture's future, predicting that computerized lottery ticket sales will top NT$100 billion in this year alone.

Anticipating a growing number of people will join the lottery game, TaipeiBank is scheduled to announce a new plan to license more ticket retailers today, in addition to the current 3,000 lottery retailers, Yang said.

But the buying frenzy may not to go on permanently, Lin said. "Only about 3 to 5 percent of the population, on average, would be addicted to it," he added.