Lottery to be revived to beat financial crisis
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)