The wonder of Taiwan's receipts
Most of the time when we buy things, we disregard the receipts. Either we refuse to accept them or we accept just to ignore them inside our wallet. And eventually when our wallet become bulky, we tore them up. Gone. Just like that.
BUT!!! You should not do that in Taiwan. Why??
Because these papers are your lottery tickets in Taiwan. Cool eh? No? Confused? No worry! Keep on reading!
BUT!!! You should not do that in Taiwan. Why??
Because these papers are your lottery tickets in Taiwan. Cool eh? No? Confused? No worry! Keep on reading!
Every two months there is a lottery in Taiwan (of course this is not the only kind of lottery in Taiwan). If the last several numbers (or all numbers) of your receipts match the winning numbers, you can win some cash! Not all stores provide receipts but so far, I think most of the stores I went into e.g. convenience stores, supermarkets, book stores, etc all give receipts in return of my purchases. Awesome right? No need to especially go and buy lottery tickets. =P
The winning numbers will be released on the 25th of the next month. For example, for the period of January and February, the winning numbers will be released on the 25th of March.
In addition, you can only collect the prizes on the stated collection dates. For your information, you can see these dates at the back of your receipt. For example, if you win prizes for the period January-February, you can collect your prizes at the nearest post office within 6th April - 5th of July.
So what are the prizes? All of them are cash prizes and is listed in the following orders:
Match all numbers - win NTD 2,000,000
Match final 7 digits - win NTD 40,000
Match final 6 digits - win NTD 10,000
Match final 5 digits - win NTD 4,000
Match final 4 digits - win NTD 1,000
Match final 3 digits - win NTD 200
If you don't want to check the numbers manually, you can go to this link and type in your number accordingly. http://postaround.me/taiwan/Taiwan-Receipt-Lottery-Checker.aspx
Okay, I've hit the jackpot. And now what??
1. If you are a foreigner, you are still eligible to collect the prizes if you have a valid Taiwan visa.
2. If you've won the 2 million NTD or the 40,000 NTD, you can only collect these from The Taiwan Cooperative Bank (http://www.tcb-bank.com.tw/)
3. For all other prizes (i.e. NTD 10,000 to NTD 200), you can go to any Post Office. The officer may ask you to produce some kind of ID number, and to save the hassle, I think it's easier to ask help from local friend to help collect the prize on behalf. Make sure to treat them something in return, okay? They are nice people. =)
Start collecting your receipts, people!!! And good luck! 祝妳成功！