Lotto Fever

I won! Last night, I began to straighten out the drawer I usually stuff my old receipts into. You don't really realize how much stuff you buy over the course of a couple of months. It's the little things like bottles of water or snacks bought at the 7-11 that really add up. These receipts get everywhere too, in pockets, on desks, in wallets, bags, under the bed, everywhere. Pretty soon, if you decide to save them, you're swimming in these long white strips of paper.

The Taiwanese government has installed this system to deter store owners from fudging the books so to speak. This link may explain it better than I can.
http://www.tealit.com/lotto.htm
Basically, the rolls of paper on which receipts are printed on are government issued and each receipt has a unique number. Every two months, four numbers are announced by the government. One is the grand prize number worth up to NT2,000,000 (65,000USD.) This month's grand prize number is 39907790. Then there are three other numbers for smaller prizes up to NT200,000. If you match the last three numbers of a receipt to any one of the four numbers announced, you can get NT200, four numbers NT1000, five numbers NT4000, six numbers NT10,000 and so on. This months supplementary numbers are 01454603, 01927870, and 45537472.

Last night, while searching through my hundreds of receipts, I found one with the number 33454603. At first I thought I had only won NT200 like I usually do. I put it aside and continued looking through the other receipts. But then I stopped and decided to look at the next number of that winning ticket, 4603; it matched. Then the next number, 54603. Could I have won NT200,000? But my excitement stopped there. I ended up NT4000 (about 130USD), which is more than I had ever won before. I was so excited. I won something for nothing! I wanted to claim my money instantly. There were two problems. It was 11:30 at night; the banks were closed. And then, they've got this silly rule that you have to wait a week after the numbers are announced to claim prizes. My soon to be 4000 cash is hanging on my wall right now. I can't forget to go to the bank next week.