Taiwan Lottery Co yesterday launched five new scratch-off games to mark the Lunar New Year, featuring a top prize of NT$20 million (US$632,483).
The annual "NT$20 Million Super Red Envelope" (2000 萬超級紅包), the most popular Lunar New Year scratch game, offers 10 top prizes of NT$20 million each and 1,200 second prizes of NT$1 million.
Total prize money exceeds NT$17.2 billion, with more than 7.97 million winning tickets, Taiwan Lottery president Hsieh Chih-hung (謝志宏) said.
Photo: CNA
Hsieh said it is the company’s highest top-prize scratch-off game of the year.
The number of top prizes, million-dollar prizes, total prize money and total winning tickets all match last year’s record highs, with an overall winning rate of 69.33 percent, Hsieh said.
The company also unveiled four Year of the Horse-themed tickets for this year's lineup: "Golden Horse Jackpot" (金馬獎), "Golden Fortune Diamond" (金好鑽), "Golden Horse Brings Joy" (金馬報喜) and "Rolling Wealth" (財源 滾滾).
Hsieh said the five new games together offer 1,232 prizes of NT$1 million or more, total prize money exceeding NT$22.2 billion, and more than 24.6 million winning tickets.
The annual Chinese zodiac-themed "Golden Horse Jackpot," priced at NT$500 per ticket, offers 14 top prizes of NT$3 million and total prize money of NT$2.55 billion, making it the "Golden Series" scratch-off with the most top prizes and highest total prize pool to date.
Taiwan Lottery has released a "Golden Series" scratch-off every Lunar New Year since 2014, the company said.
Three additional new games "Golden Fortune Diamond," "Golden Horse Brings Joy" and "Rolling Wealth" also went on sale yesterday, priced between NT$100 and NT$200.
Taiwan Lottery has launched 10 new scratch-off games so far this year, with a total of 18 prizes of NT$10 million or more.
Hsieh said total sales reached NT$168.15 billion last year, up 12.3 percent year-on-year, setting a record high.
Computer-based lottery sales rose 23.1 percent to NT$80.97 billion, and scratch-off ticket sales increased 3.8 percent to NT$87.18 billion, he added.
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