Everyone’s been making a big deal about the
Taiwan Lottery.. today is the drawing for the largest jackpot in its history, 700,000,000 NTD.. or about $20,000,000. People here talk about it continuously.. never mind that I have a California Lottery ticket on my cubicle wall that shows a $30,000,000 jackpot.. I don’t think most people here could comprehend some of those $90+ million jackpots in California.. back home, I normally don’t even play lotto until it hits like $40+ million.. anyhow, us expats rounded up 200NTD from each other for a lotto pool.. dunno how true it is, but a local told me that the amount is paid in one lump sum of 700,000,000 NTD minus about 15% for taxes, I assume.. that should be enough money to allow us the freedom to pack up our things and fly home tomorrow if we win.. We tried going to the 7-11 near work to buy lotto tickets.. silly us, thought convenience stores sold them..

Expat: “Excuse me, do you sell lottery tickets here?”
7-11: [trippin] “No..”
Expat: “Oh, then where can we buy lottery tickets?”
7-11: [trippin even harder now] “At a lottery store!”

I’ve also been listening to music at work.. it helps me filter out all the shouting and loud talking people in Taiwan seem to love doing.. and I began to notice.. when the bands you like start coming out with “Best Of” albums.. you know you’re getting old..

Update: the lottery is up to 1,000,000,000 NTD or $30 million USD.. we have 6 people in the pool, thats about $4.25 million per person after the 15% tax or whatever.. ok, this is weird.. people who play the lottery are called punters

Update: Check this out.. I found this on Google Answers.. for those of you who don’t know (like I didnt know before I found this article).. Google Answers allows you to post a question and associate a “bounty” (list price) to that question.. an authorized Google researcher will accept your question and then dig up an answer.. in the end, you pay the researcher the list price, rate his/her performance, and you can give him/her a tip if you’re really happy with his/her answer.. the minimum price for a question is $2.50.. pretty cool.. anyhow, here’s the question I found.. click here.. some interesting statistics:

83% - have given some of their winnings to their family.

Of these:
66% - have given money to their siblings
57% - have given money to their children
51% - have given money to their parents.

Only 51% gave money to their parents??

“Research shows that a significant number of lottery winners lose their winnings within five years, said Stephen Goldbart, a psychologist and co- director of the Money, Meaning and Choices Institute in Kentfield, which advices people who come into financial windfalls.”

Nearly one-third of lottery winners become bankrupt.

Kinda like MC Hammer, huh?

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