A new lottery will make its debut today. It is different from the existing Lotto, which was introduced in 2002. It is called a “pension lottery.” The name is somewhat strange as the concept of a lottery does not fit well with pensions.
The government has combined the two words in an apparent bid to promote the lottery. Ostensibly its aim is to provide the top prize winner with monthly payment for a long period, instead of a lump sum at once. Under the payment formula, the winner will receive 5 million won ($4,630) every month for 20 years. The installments are to prevent lottery winners from wasting their money too quickly.
The pension lottery could be a viable option to solve the self-destructive effect of Lotto buyers’ get-rich-quick mentality. However, it cannot basically change the nature of the lottery. Rather it may cause a misunderstanding about the lottery.
The word pension could make ticket buyers mistakenly think that the lottery will bring them a stable income like a pension if they hit the jackpot. This might be a government ploy to get rid of the negative implications about the lottery in order to sell more tickets.
It would be better to call the new format “an installment payment lottery” without using the word pension. However, officials have decided to use pension. Have they ever thought of the potentially misleading message the name might send out?
Policymakers are apparently employing a trick to deflect criticism that the government has run a lucrative lottery business by invoking a speculative drive among the people who try to make their fortune through luck. The government earned 1.28 trillion won in net proceeds from selling 2.52 trillion won of Lotto tickets last year.
The government is now expanding the business by issuing the new tickets. Officials may defend themselves by saying that the state has invested nearly half of the proceeds in rental housing projects for low-income earners and welfare programs for the poor.
The problem is that lottery ticket buyers are mostly in the lower income brackets. This means that the government has pinched money out of the pockets of the poor through the lottery to raise funds for the state projects and welfare programs.
Now, policymakers need to pay more heed to growing voices against the lottery. They need to consider reducing the business and take up the slack by utilizing tax revenue. No one can deny that the lottery makes people have a pipe dream of making a fortune in one stroke, while discouraging the hard-working spirit ― the driving force behind what Korea is now.