End of the year lottery in Japan

An ATV news report about the people who lined up earlier this week for a chance to buy some of the first tickets for the 2009 end of the year “jumbo” lottery:

This year, 70 lucky numbers will be assigned 200 million yen ($2.3 million) prizes. Sales of lottery tickets are expected to to be very high this year, since the bad economy has caused many companies to cut their bonuses. [If you think gambling your money away on lotto tickets is a smart idea, you probably didn't deserve a bonus in the first place.]

The organization that runs the lottery released information that claimed past winner data reveals that men with the initials T.K. and women with the initials M.K. are most likely to win. They also said that men born under the Aquarius zodiac sign and women born under Pisces tended to be luckiest.

Some people are shown buying huge amounts of tickets. One man bought 1 million yen ($11,000) worth of tickets in the hopes of achieving his dream…

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jc

$1-million yen worth of combustible material for the winter.

Is it wrong to get rich off stupid people? Sure it is immoral and unethical, but it is profitable!
http://www.dreaming-artemis.com dreamingArtemis

his dream? of what being broke?!
http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

The only people who win are the ones starring in the adverts, and you can bet that they are not spending their appearance fee on lottery tickets.

The whole Japanese lottery system pissed me off as they are encouraging reckless gambling, with the scratch card ads being the worst of the lot.
Level3

Yup, and since winners’ data is kept secret to “protect them”, we don’t even know if anyone actually wins any money, or at least if ALL the prize money advertised is actually won, or jsut handed out as bonuses to bank executives who run the lottery. Yeah, banks run it here, not the government, no profit motive there, eh?

And the total prize money is pathetic for a friggin NATIONAL lottery in a nation of 120,000,000 people that spans 2 months, especially considering the tickets cost 300 yen. Grand prize is not even a 1,000,000 to 1 return. Weekly lotteries in the USA in moderate-sized states have larger returns.

No doubt far more money goes into advertising than the prizes themselves. Back in the USA, 50% of lottery ticket sales go into the prize, most of the rest goes to schools, and a few percent go into advertising and admin. Probably the reverse in Japan.

Tax the poor and stupid!

jc

300 yen per ticket is cheap. That is what, umm, three bucks a play? Here in Ontario we have a lottery that increases its pot by $10-million up to $50m, then it goes up by $1-million past that. The price to entry is steep, five bucks a play.

People who spend that much money for a shot on a big money pool are the best customers for Idiot Taxes.

End of the year lottery in Japan

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