We Won the Lottery! - April Fools

Sorry everyone, I couldn't resist a good (or bad) April Fools joke. The truth is we did win, but only one of the many NT$ 200 prizes (~$6 USD). Still need a few more of those to cover a ticket back to Asia.

Well folks, we thought we were rounding some of the last turns of our trip, but as it turns out, while we were in Taiwan, we learned about the country's free national lottery. Here's how it works. Every time you purchase something in Taiwan, no matter how big or small, your receipt comes with a free lottery ticket. Why do they do this, one may ask? If the population demands receipts, and in turn their free lottery tickets, then businesses are forced to accurately report their sales to the government. Clever way to combat tax evasion huh? Oh, and they draw the winning numbers every two months, for the preceding two months. So I had to carry these things around for almost 4 months to find out that I had won.

Here's the prize list:

• Special Prize - NT$ 10,000,000 (~$330,000)


• Grand Prize -  NT$ 2,000,000 (~$66,000)


• Regular Prize -  NT$ 200,000 (~$6,600)


• Second Prize - NT$ 40,000 (~$1,300)


• Third Prize - NT$ 10,000 (~$300)


• Fourth Prize - NT$ 4,000 (~$130)


• Fifth Prize - NT$ 1,000 (~$30)


• Sixth Prize - NT$ 200 (~$6)

I don't know if it's that I facetiously declared myself Buddhist last month when asked about my religion or if it was just dumb luck, but somehow, when we went to Breeze at Taipei Main Station, we picked up a ticket that would be able to fund travels at our current financial burn rate for the next 8 friggin years! There's one slight problem though. Even though tourists are eligible to participate in and win this lottery, we still have to show up in person to collect our money. Asia here we come again!