CLAIMS TO FAME
- Career banker with lottery owner Chinatrust Commercial Bank
Taiwan’s “Welfare Lottery” has had a major leadership change, with chairman Steve Hsieh retiring in June after 14 years on a high note of corporate stability and solid revenue growth.
His replacement is Huang Chih-yi, a current director of Taiwan Lottery Co and a former veteran general manager (2007-2017) of considerable innovation, as well as a career banker with Chinatrust Commercial Bank, which operates the government-owned lottery under license as part of a consortium with Intralot.
Huang inherits a company that is positively booming, with total ticket sales in calendar 2023 rising 25.8% to a record-smashing NT$162.5 billion (US$5.1 billion), and its corporate surplus (roughly equivalent to EBITDA, plus interest) up 22.5% to US$1.1 billion over the same period. Taking over the reins of Taiwan Lottery Co is a classic big-shoes-to-fill scenario, but Huang’s knowledge of the company and the industry has few peers.
Because the lottery’s primary goal is distribution of largesse to needy people and government social and health fund mechanisms, Huang’s mission statement in June reinforced the need for both a steady growth trajectory and expanding public support for the lottery’s charity and welfare mandate, which includes the employment of under-privileged people as ticket agents.
The signs for 2024 are auspicious, with revenue as of 25 September up 4.6% year-on-year, making Taiwan’s premier lottery market a force to be reckoned with now and in the future. Huang’s experience and popular touch – he has personally handed jackpot checks to hundreds of winners over the years – promise to keep this steady express train firmly on its rails.
For the full list of 2024 Asian Gaming Power 50 winners, click here.
