Lottery council wants a lot of tickets

HCM CITY — The Southern Lottery Council wants all 21 members to print VNĐ100 billion (US$4.37 million) worth of tickets every week.

To take advantage of growing demand, the council said its members – all public companies and at the rate of one per province or city – should continue to strive for a higher output.

The members said they would try to reach VNĐ90 billion per week by October 1 this year and VNĐ100 billion by January 1.

Their printing currently ranges from VNĐ80 billion to VNĐ90 billion worth of tickets.

Hồ Kinh Kha, director of the Tiền Giang Province’s Department of Finance, said large companies should help smaller ones so that all of them sell the same number of tickets.

Phan Thanh Sơn, an official from the Ministry of Finance, said his ministry was working on reforming the lottery market to improve its efficiency and enable growth.

In the first half of this year the member companies’ revenues rose by 17.44 per cent.

Their pre-tax profit rose by 12.05 per cent.

Last year the Southern Lottery Council’s members contributed VNĐ24 trillion in taxes and donated over VNĐ205 billion to charitable causes like healthcare, scholarships and disaster aid and VNĐ81 billion to build and repair houses for poor people. — VNS