Since the termination of the "Patriotic Lottery" more than 10 years ago, many businesses and citizens have long been looking forward to new lotteries. "Regulations Governing the Issuance of Public Welfare Lottery Tickets" were passed by the Legislative Yuan four years ago. However, government departments had never reached any final conclusions about when lottery tickets can be issued, whether it is the central or local governments that may issue them, and how the income from lotteries should be distributed. Now, the Kaohsiung Municipal Government (KMG) has jumped the gun and issued "public welfare lottery tickets," giving rise to a number of problems and disputes.

On June 15, Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party) signed a five-year contract with the bid-winning company to produce scratch-to-win lottery tickets and, in the future, tickets for a number lottery.

Within three days, the KMG had issued a trial run of 240,000 scratch-to-win lottery tickets, with each one selling for NT$100 and the top prize being NT$500,000. The trial tickets were rapidly sold out, and it was anticipated that the official lottery would begin on July 1.

At an event on June 14 called "Dreams Can Come True: A Charity Event Marking the Trial Issue of Kaohsiung City Loving Heart Public Welfare Lottery Tickets," the KMG issued three symbolic lottery ticket sales licenses. These were received by Ou Meiling, director of the Self-Help Entrepreneurial Association, and by a representative each for low-income households and aboriginal people. There are 650 transferable sales licenses, 35 percent of which will go to disadvantaged groups, while the remainder will go to ordinary retail shops and chain stores.

As Kaohsiung was experiencing lottery fever, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced, on the basis of the lottery regulations, that it was slapping fines of NT$1.5 million on both the KMG and the bid-winning company. Sean C. Chen, administrative vice minister of finance, said that according to the regulations, MOF approval is needed to issue lottery tickets. The KMG did not receive such approval. In fact, says Minister of Finance Paul C.H. Chiu, the MOF notified the KMG on separate occasions in March, April, and May that it did not approve of the issuing of lottery tickets. Thus the KMG acted illegally, and did so knowingly.

To reclaim the power to issue lottery tickets, and to block the KMG from issuing its own, the ruling Kuomintang mobilized its legislators to pass amendments to the lottery regulations. The goal was to restrict the power to issue lottery tickets to the central government. Hsieh Shen-shan, Secretary-General of the Executive Yuan, says that the amendments were passed out of consideration for the future "citizens' annuity" (a subsidy for senior citizens) for which lottery tickets will be a source of funds. The policy of the central government has always been for the central government to have the sole power to issue lottery tickets, after which it would consider how to share revenues with localities.

The amended regulations were on the legislative agenda for June 15. As the ruling party mobilized its legislators, the outnumbered opposition could only engage in delaying tactics. At this time, the legislature was already tense because of the dispute over whether Wu Tse-yuan-who was convicted of bribery, released on bail, and then elected a legislator-should be a representative from the Legislative Yuan to the National Judicial Reform Conference. The result of the face-off and the halting of the agenda was that fists flew, something which had been rarely seen these past few years in the Legislative Yuan. In protest against the fighting, opposition legislators collectively walked out. In the absence of the opposition parties, the ruling party then hurriedly passed the amended lottery regulations by voice vote.

In the amended regulations, Article 4 has been changed to read that lottery tickets can only be issued by banks at the direction of the competent authority. Article 6 clearly stipulates that profits from the issuing of lottery tickets are to go exclusively to the citizens' annuity, national health insurance, or social welfare.

Amidst the hasty passage of the amendments, a provision allowing private gambling, long supported by a certain group of legislators, was attached to and passed along with the regulations. This rider reads: "For the purposes of staging internationally recognized events, application may be made to the competent authority for approval of special issuance of public welfare lottery tickets." The rider was widely criticized, because it opens the door to legal gambling on car racing, horse racing, and other kinds of sporting events.

Saying it wants to block any rampant spread of gambling, the Executive Yuan has decided to propose additional amendments in the next legislative session. However, it will certainly meet strong opposition from the conglomerates and legislators who fought so hard to have the gambling rider passed.

With the end of the legislative session, the matter has come to a temporary halt. Mayor Hsieh hopes that the central government will provide sunrise or sunset provisions so that the Kaohsiung lottery may operate until such time as the central government will take it over or commission Kaohsiung to run the lottery. Meanwhile, the contractor, fearing legal penalties, has decided not to import the lottery tickets (which were printed abroad), and Mayor Hsieh has had to announce that the lottery, planned to begin on July 1, has been postponed.

While the central and local government battle it out over who gets the money, Yeh Chih-kuei, an associate professor in the Department of Tourism at Providence University, offers a different opinion. He says that lotteries are a form of gambling, and although the government may get revenues, lotteries are not economically productive, but merely transfer money from one set of hands to another. Moreover, lotteries absorb time and resources from society, and can only worsen the drain of resources from the economy. Thus it would be best if neither the local nor central governments issued lottery tickets.

Whether you're for or against lotteries, it is clear that many people can't wait for the day when the central government begins issuing lottery tickets. Large numbers of people, including many members of the national parliament, rushed to buy Kaohsiung trial lottery tickets. The 240,000 tickets not only sparked a wave of "scratching" the itch to gamble, they also sparked hopes for employment for many disadvantaged groups.

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Kaohsiung City trial lottery tickets were snatched up by citizens eager to try their luck. (photo by Hu Ching-yu)