Done with the Lottery

Taiwan has several different lottery systems, none of which I actually know anything about. However, I've paid attention to the all-around free lottery. Each time a receipt is provided at a store, a lottery number is printed at the top.

Here are three different receipts. We have lots and lots from 7-11. Just under the big 7-ELEVEN, is a number. That's the lottery number. Above the 7-ELEVEN, the month (03-04) is listed. These two pieces of information allow anyone with a receipt to potentially win a cash prize! Oh, what the lure.

I've seen somewhere that the reason for this lottery system is to keep stores honest. Customers want the chance to win so they expect a receipt. This way, the government feels more secure that cash flow is going through the register and into tax coffers instead of under tables and into pockets. (Don't quote me though...)

The system runs on a revolving two month check-in. In this case, both March and April join for possible winners. Winning numbers come out around the 25th of the month after the window closes (i.e. May) To check, I've gone to this TEALIT webpage.

There lies the problem. I still have mounds of March/April tickets lying around. I'm done with the clutter. I'm done with the lottery. Have I ever won? Nope. Did I mention that I'm done. Good luck to the rest of you!