After much-publicized preparations, the Bank of Taipei beat the Bank of Kaohsiung in obtaining official authorization to issue lottery tickets. On January 16, the bank began to sell jumbo lotto, scratch-and-win lotto, and traditional lotto tickets. The scratch-and-win lotto gives players the exciting possibility of winning instantaneously, the traditional lotto is a variation of the old Liberty Lottery and is meant to attract those who remember that game, while the computerized jumbo lotto, which is now all the rage, promises to make players rich overnight and allows them to pick their own numbers.

On the day the lottery was launched, 2500 computerized lottery kiosks sold tickets all over Taiwan. In addition, 181 bank-branch sales points are authorized to sell lottery tickets. It is estimated that within a year there will be 8000 computerized lottery kiosks.

During the official banquet launching the national lottery, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou declared: "The truth is that the lottery is a form of gambling but the government can legally regulate it so as to increase its usefulness to the public." The national lottery has produced upwards of 10,000 jobs, and will generate estimated sales of NT$100 billion within a year. Even after 60% of this sum is deducted to pay out winning tickets, the remainder will provide substantial additional funds for Taiwan's national pension program, national health insurance, and local social services. The national lottery will contribute in a big way to financially strapped central and local governments.

Mayor Ma jokes that the lottery is the "Little People's Rhapsody," but confesses that he still doesn't know how to play the lottery. If by any chance he should hit the jackpot, he would not know what do to with it. Jesse Y. Ding, managing director of the Taipei Bank, jokes that if the mayor hits the jackpot, the Taipei Bank will gladly extend psychological counseling and financial services to him.

To play the jumbo lotto, which carries the biggest jackpot, players select any six numbers from a field of 42. At the time of the drawing, a bonus number is drawn in addition to the 6 winning numbers. To win the jackpot, players must match 6 winning numbers. For the second prize you need to match 5 numbers plus the bonus number. To win the lowest prize, NT$200, you need at least 3 matches.

Each jumbo lotto ticket costs NT$50. If 10.4 million tickets are sold for every drawing, the jackpot is NT$45 million. The game has a rolling jackpot that grows on each drawing when the previous jackpot has not been won. The rolling jackpot can accumulate for a maximum of five weeks, and if 10.4 million tickets are sold each drawing, the top prize will build to NT$250 million. If more than 10.4 million tickets are sold every week, the jackpot will soar even higher.

During the first week after the national lottery was launched, many Taiwanese people pooled together to buy lottery tickets and thus increase their chances of hitting the jackpot. Many also tried to get the winning numbers by praying to the gods and resorting to divination.

Fifty New Taiwan dollars buys you the dream of striking it rich, adds a little hope to ordinary life, is a good conversation topic, and is pretty cheap. But psychologists warn that the more you play the lottery and the longer you go without winning, the more likely you are to get despondent and irritable. In serious cases, people eventually start thinking that they have to recover the money they've already lost. Psychologists speak of "compulsive gambling" when this goes on for more than six months. Compulsive gamblers often display anger, tell lies, and steal. Doctors are therefore calling on the general public to weigh the risks of gambling and to take losses in stride in order to avoid gambling affecting their work and family life.

Lin Hung-chun, vice manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation's Trust Department, notes that follow-up studies conducted abroad on people who have won big jackpots show that up to half of them quit their jobs, go on spending sprees, make unwise investment decisions, are tricked, and find themselves broke and back where they started within five years. It is therefore important to manage one's winnings wisely.

Under the current lottery system in Taiwan, the jackpot is paid out in one sum after deduction of taxes. This means that if you win a NT$50 million jackpot you can take home NT$40 million. Li Hung-chun advises jackpot winners to draw up a financial management plan and put the money into a trust to finance their children's education or their own retirement.

The history of Taiwanese lotteries has been long and varied: the Liberty Lottery, the Taipei City Lottery, the Kaohsiung City Lottery, the Taipei Bank national lottery, and today's jumbo lotto. Of these, the Liberty Lottery, which ran for 36 years, was the longest lived. Today many still remember playing it. In 1950, soon after Taiwan was recovered from the Japanese, the government embarked on a full-scale reconstruction effort and commissioned the Bank of Taiwan to run the Liberty Lottery to raise funds. It went strong until the illegal "Everyone's a Winner Lottery" became all the rage in the 1980s and forced the government to discontinue the Liberty Lottery in 1988.

The launch of the national lottery has been criticized by some as turning the government into a gambling-house "banker," and that it effectively "robs the poor to help the poor." But most people think that lotteries have become an international trend and that it is not impossible for illegal activities associated with the lottery to be combated. Ordinary people believe that as long as they do not harm themselves or others when they try their luck with a lottery ticket, they are not stealing from anyone.

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The first jumbo lotto jackpot was enthusiastically awaited by the Taiwanese people and drawn on January 22. No one won the first jackpot of more than NT$100 million; six people won the second prize and took home NT$7 million each.

Ordinary people dream of striking it rich: the national lottery in Taiwan.