Asia-Pacific News

Taiwan to launch sports lottery in May

Apr 18, 2008, 6:44 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan will launch a sports lottery in May and the government will use the proceeds to develop sports and improve the lives of the handicapped, an official said on Friday. 'We will launch a sports lottery on May 2. In the initial stage, we will introduce betting on local and overseas baseball, basketball and soccer,' Yang Jui-tung, vice president of the Taipei Fubon Bank said in an interview with Broadcasting Corp of China. Fubon Bank is in charge of issuing the sports lottery. Yang said Taiwan's sports lottery will start with betting on 2,000 games a year, but needs to cover 6,000 games a year to make profits. 'We will cover US baseball, basketball and European soccer games. As European soccer games are played Saturday evening, which is Saturday night in Taiwan, we will also have Japanese and South Korean soccer games so that on Sunday, we also have games to bet on,' he said. The betting can go on for 22 hours a day every day throughout the year. Taiwan launched a public welfare lottery in 2000 to benefit the disabled by allowing them to sell lottery tickets but decided to launch sports gambling to use the proceeds to promote sports and stimulate the economy.

Asia-Pacific News

Taiwan to launch sports lottery in May

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