Vice Minister Ki Jae: "Reevaluating Lottery Fund Support Priorities... Expanding Roles"

Choi Sang-dae, 2nd Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Son Seon-hee] The government plans to expand the role of the lottery fund's public interest projects, which amount to about 3 trillion won annually, and also reconsider the support targets.

Choi Sang-dae, Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance, said at a policy forum held on the morning of the 2nd at the Fairmont Ambassador in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, commemorating the 20th anniversary of the issuance of online lottery (Lotto), "It is necessary to break away from the annual and habitual support for public interest projects aimed at supporting low-income and vulnerable groups and to reconsider the priority of support from scratch according to changes in the socio-economic environment."

Vice Minister Choi said, "To gain public sympathy for the public purpose of the lottery fund, it should not be limited to a supplementary role in finance, but the role of the lottery fund should be expanded to meet new welfare demands arising from various social and economic changes," adding, "To this end, ways to efficiently allocate the lottery fund to the right places and enhance project performance should be reviewed."

Online lottery sales began on December 2, 2002, marking exactly 20 years on this day. The lottery fund, which utilizes lottery sales revenue, was established in 2004 to support low-income and marginalized groups. At the time of its establishment in 2004, the annual lottery fund project budget was about 900 billion won, which has increased to about 3 trillion won this year. On a cumulative basis, it amounts to a total of 29 trillion won.

As public interest projects through the lottery fund have become more active, the positive perception of the lottery has also risen from 54.2% in the first survey in 2008 to 73.7% last year, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

Furthermore, Vice Minister Choi said, "To enhance the reliability and efficiency of the lottery business, it is necessary to further sophisticate the overall lottery business system, including lottery operation and issuance structure," adding, "Considering the global IT technology trend, we should consider introducing a cloud-based approach to operate the lottery system more efficiently and stably." He continued, "If systems separated by function are integrated and the optimal cloud model is derived, it is expected not only to drastically reduce lottery issuance costs but also to improve the flexibility and efficiency of the lottery system."

At the forum, past online lottery operation performance and issues were reviewed, and future development plans were discussed. Based on this, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance's Lottery Committee plans to prepare specific institutional reform measures.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.