The Southern Lottery Council wants all 21 members to print VND100 billion (US$4.37 million) worth of tickets every week.

To take advantage of growing demand, the council said its members – all public companies and at the rate of one per province or city – should continue to strive for a higher output.

The members said they would try to reach VND90 billion per week by October 1 this year and VND100 billion by January 1.

Their printing currently ranges from VND80 billion to VND90 billion worth of tickets.

Ho Kinh Kha, director of the Tien Giang Province’s Department of Finance, said large companies should help smaller ones so that all of them sell the same number of tickets.

Phan Thanh Son, an official from the Ministry of Finance, said his ministry was working on reforming the lottery market to improve its efficiency and enable growth.

In the first half of this year the member companies’ revenues rose by 17.44 per cent.

Their pre-tax profit rose by 12.05 per cent.

Last year the Southern Lottery Council’s members contributed VND24 trillion in taxes and donated over VND205 billion to charitable causes like healthcare, scholarships and disaster aid and VND81 billion to build and repair houses for poor people. — VNS