When you make a purchase in Taiwan, you will receive a receipt, on which is printed a “uniform receipt number”: several letters and eight numbers, and a 2-month date range. These “lucky” numbers are used as lottery numbers and every other month, a list of winning numbers is published online. Lottery prizes range from 200NT (~8 USD) for matching the last three numbers in a series to 2 million NT (67K USD) for matching all 8 – gee, wouldn’t that be nice to win?!
On the 23rd of each January, March, May, July, September, and November, the government’s lottery website is bombarded. Then, on the 6th of the following month, winners show up at their local post office to claim their prizes. How do I know this? Because I was recently a “winner”!!
I save my receipts, put them in numberical order (according to the last 3 numbers), and check the numbers every other month. Finally, last month, a receipt for a 249NT purchase at Shengli paid off: I matched 4 numbers and won 1000NT! woohoo!
At the post office on the corner of Anhe and Tonghua, I marched my receipt upstairs to the post office bank, took a number and when my number was called, presented the receipt with my ID and walked out 1000NT richer (ok, I had to pay 2NT to process the ticket but I still WON!). And this month again, I won: 200NT. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick! Can the 2mil be far off?
Asia's best kept secret... 