The Lunar New Year is traditionally a time to worship gods and ancestors and make grand plans for the future. But this year, following the launch of Taiwan's first computerized lotto, New Year's well-wishing is giving way to dreams of overnight riches.
Since early yesterday, Lunar New Year's Day, housewives, laborers and office workers lined up outside street-corner lottery booths to buy the government-sponsored lotto, which is called "Le Tou" (樂透) or "Thrilled with Joy" in Chinese.
The lottery was launched a month ago after the government relaxed its longstanding ban on gambling. The frenzy peaked this week when Taiwanese bought the lottery with "lucky money" traditionally stashed in red envelopes and handed out by employers, parents or relatives for the new year.
Food and clothing stores hoping for brisk pre-holiday sales gave away lottery tickets instead of discount coupons. Several police stations handed out lotto tickets instead of red envelopes to cheer up policemen on duty during the weeklong holidays.
On the streets, the standard New Year greeting of "Kung Hsi Fa Tsai" (
Cable television stations flashed the news that this week's top prize, to be announced last night, could reach a record-high of NT$250 million (about US$7 million).
Officials said lottery sales could generate tax income for the government and create jobs as Taiwan's economy sinks into its worst recession in decades.
Children under 18 are not allowed to play the lottery. But newspapers reported that many adults asked their children to pick numbers, believing kids have better luck.
There were concerns that lotto fever could erode the traditional virtues of thrift and hard work that helped built the Taiwanese economic miracle in the past two decades.
"Many of the unemployed stopped seeking new jobs and some people used their unemployment pay to buy the lottery," Liu Hsin-jen, a civil servant wrote in a local newspaper.
After leading a New Year prayer, the respected Monk Hsin Yun told worshippers at a Buddhist temple not to indulge in the lottery fever.
"Health and peace will bring greater joy than money," he said.
Government officials have asked the news media not to fan superstition by reporting how people guess at winning numbers.
A cable TV station was ordered to suspend a program in which its anchorman consulted a "sacred" wooden table about lotto-related questions.
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