The Issue of Lottery

In late Qing Shanghai, there was already “Lu Soong Wealth Bonds” issued, which exchange for award simultaneously as the foreign bonds. After that, Shanghai became the most important town in China to run for different kinds of lotteries. In the same time, the local governments also issued lotteries in order to get more money resource.
When the National Government was established in Canton, there was also bond issued with awards. The interest of this bond was one penny each month, and all of those were counted as awards. There would be no more additional interest. After this bond was issued, it was soon sellout. On December of 1917, the suggestion of Minister of Finance Sun Fo’s to issue the lottery with awards under the Ministry of Finance was approved.

On January of 1933, Ministry of Finance T.V Soong issued the “Construction Lottery of Aviation and Road”. Since the government didn’t have enough money to develop its aviation and road, Soong learned that it is important to get some helps from the civilian by observing the examples from foreign countries. The National Government paid serious attention to it, and even issued the “Construction Lottery of Aviation and Road Act”. In order to inspect and popularize this effort, the government even used the “Liangyou huabao” magazine and other media to advertise it. Eventually, this turned out to be success, and all the money collected were used for the construction.

After the government retreat to Taiwan, the most popular and longest lottery was certainly the Patriot Lottery. In 1950, the Taiwan Provincial Government passed the “Taiwan Provincial Government Patriot Lottery Issuing Act”, and to commission Bank of Taiwan to publish those lotteries. From April 11th, 1950 to December 27th, 1987, the issued number of Patriot Lottery was up to 1171. It also helped us to understand the development of Taiwan in those 20 years by seeing the designs of the Patriot Lottery.

In 2002, the government asked Taipei Fubon Bank to issued “public welfare lottery” in order to collect fund for the social welfare. There were computer lottery and instant lottery. In 2007,China Trust Bank took over the job and continued to serve as public welfare lottery issuance institute in 2014. Although the lotteries were issued with different reasons and purposes, it still provided the common citizens a chance to contribute the society while entertaining themselves.