Lottery to be revived to beat financial crisis
JAKARTA (JP): After a four-year lapse, the government plans to revive its lottery to raise money for sports development.
Negotiations between the National Sports Council and the Ministry of Social Services are underway to finalize the arrangements of the scheme which is expected to begin in six months.
A council executive, Dali Taher, told reporters yesterday that the program, called Sports Awareness Campaign, would last for 10 years. By the end of the campaign in 2008 the council is expected to have raised Rp 100 billion (US$7.14 million).
The lottery is badly needed to finance the council's bid to ensure Indonesia finishes sixth at the 2006 Asian Games, Dali said.
Dali accompanied council chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar at a meeting with Minister of Social Services Justika Baharsyah yesterday.
"Both the council and the government agreed last year that the best way to finance sports events and development in the country is by involving the public," Dali said.
The sports fund will be raised through selling numbered coupons, each of which will cost between Rp 5,000 and Rp 100,000. Only the state mint Peruri will be authorized to print the coupons in an attempt to avoid counterfeiting.
State bank BRI, whose branches reach remote villages, will distribute the coupons.
Like the old lottery, which was terminated in 1994, the fund- raising organizers are offering prizes as an incentive to buy the coupons. The details of these are still being discussed.
An American consortium will be invited to operate a computerized system to select the winners.
Dali said the organizers would take half of the annual revenue to cover operational costs and to provide the prizes, hand in 30% of the income for sports development and the remaining 20% to the council and the Ministry of Social Services.
The ministry's spokesman, Surya Wijaya, said that the council and the ministry had yet to decide how many coupons would be sold.
Dali claimed that the Indonesian Council of Ulemas had approved the plan, because it would not encourage people to gamble.
Wismoyo added that such lotteries were being run in almost 100 Moslem countries.
"Even Abdurrahman Wahid (chairman of the country's largest Moslem organization Nahdlatul Ulama) himself said the coupon sale should reach Islamic boarding schools all over the country," said Wismoyo.
The government stopped the previous lottery in late 1994 following popular opposition spearheaded by religious leaders. Since then the council has relied on the helping hands of businesspeople and occasional stickers sales to raise funds for sporting activities.
The sales of stickers came under fire not only because of the lack of transparency in their management but also because the government compelled people to buy them. (yan)