Jackpot!

I won the Taiwanese lottery!

It’s true, I only won NT$200 (less than $7 US), but still -- I won.

So check this out:  Here in Taiwan, you are automatically entered into the national lottery every time you make a qualifying purchase and collect your receipt.  Each receipt has numeric code at the top, and that’s your lucky number.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

The idea here is to generate more tax revenue for the government by encouraging businesses to conduct more “on the books” transactions.  The business that printed the winning receipt also gets a kickback on the money.

I've had to force myself to remember to take my receipts, since I was so used to refusing them from the cashiers back home.  Then there was the process of saving them in an orderly fashion, instead of having them clutter the surfaces of my apartment or collect in dust-bunny piles in corners.

A place for everything, and everything in its place

On the 25th of every odd month, the winning numbers from the previous two months are announced.  You have to check each receipt individually, which is quite tedious.  There MUST be a more efficient method, but I haven’t found it.  Anyways, I always check this site for the numbers and pray to the Money-for-Nothing God for a winner.  It’s disheartening to spend half an hour straining your eyes on all those little numbers just to find out you’re a big loser.

But I'm no loser.  After I found my golden ticket, (and yes, that's a link to the timeless classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) I filled out the form on the back of the receipt, walked myself down to the bank, and cashed in my prize.  The guy behind the bank window didn’t question or even check my winning numbers.  He just looked at the receipt, saw that I claimed to have won $200, and passed the cash over.  I guess I have an honest face.

Just like my momma always told me, I’m a winner!  And I KNOW that next month, I’ll win the $10million NT.  I can just feel it.

Makin' it raaaaaaaaaaaain

Megabuck’s got nothin on me.