Winning the lottery, hitting the multimillion dollar jackpot, barely making rent one minute and then fabulously wealthy the next. It is a universal fantasy that crosses bounds of ethnicity, language and culture. Even the poor, gray-faced people living under totalitarian rule in places like Cuba, Iraq and North Korea dream of winning the lotto. And according to a wacky South Korean high-tech businessman, the North Korean government is the perfect arbiter of a new lottery on the Internet ø not in spite of, but because of North KoreaÕs dictatorial communist regime.
Kim Beom-hoon, president of South KoreaÕs Internet technology company Hoonnet, started DPRKoreaLotto.com in early April from offices in Pyongyang, North Korea. The idea behind this Internet lottery is simple: Web surfers go to the site, enter in their credit card information, select their lucky numbers and wait to see if they win the jackpot. The reason for having the lotto based in North Korea according Mr. Beom-hoon is contestants could win up to 100% of the prize money because North Korea did not charge any tax from the lottery. When talking to the press about the DPRKoreaLotto.com website from his office in Pyongyang, Mr. Beom-hoon slammed the economic school of thought that made him a wealthy businessman to curry favor with his new communist masters, noting that ÒMost capitalist countries have special laws on lotto. [Capitalist countriesÕ] lotto takes money from the poor people and then the money is used by the government.Ó Well, I canÕt deny that ø In Texas, the dollar a poor slob like me spends on a lotto ticket goes into a general education fund that is distributed to the stateÕs massive school system. Any profits made from lotto ticket sales are used to buy books, desks and stuff for school children. Dirty capitalist swine!
In the rules section of the DPRKoreaLotto.com website, the advantages of capitalist republics running lotteries versus brutal communist dictatorships is put so succinctly: ÒThere are many lottos that award 10% and deduct as tax in the capitalist societies, but our (DPR) Korea Lotto Joint Venture awards more than 70% of total lotto sales amounts.Ó However, that doesnÕt mean that the Canadian government wonÕt take their over 40% cut in taxes if you are a DPRKoreaLotto.com winner living in Vancouver. The lotto site also suggests Òit also serve the users to get the prize from any bank in any country of the world so that the users can obtain the prize at ease.Ó Sounds like there will be a whole lot of winners that do their banking in Switzerland. Seriously, are we supposed to believe that if I send a hundred bucks to this lottery website, the communist North Korea government wonÕt touch my money?
Notice the reference to the lotto being a Òjoint ventureÓ between Hoonnet, North KoreaÕs Jangsang Trade General Co and the Pan-Pacific Economic Development Association of Korean Nationals? Hoonnet is an Internet technology and e-commerce company. I found no information about Jangsang Trade General but the Pan-Pacific Economic Development Association of Korean Nationals is the multimedia propaganda arm of the North Korean government that has operated out of Beijing, China since 1999. Why Beijing? Because North Korea didnÕt have any broadband Internet capabilities until Mr. Beom-hoon brought his lottery idea to fruition. Even now, the connection used in Pyongyang for DPRKoreaLotto.com is a fiber optic cable strung from Beijing. That cable was paid for by Mr. Beom-hoon, who invested $200,000 for use of the fiber optic link and a total of 1.16 million USD in the project. Mr. Beom-hoon is going to be a hero in North Korea, since he was so instrumental in finally hooking the communist government up with high-speed Internet access.
Mr. Beom-hoon was unfazed by the South Korean governmentÕs statement that the DPRKoreaLotto.com website would be blocked in South Korea. Mr. Beom-hoon, who approached the North and South Korean governments with this Internet lotto idea in 2000, didnÕt seem bothered by his own governmentÕs National Security Law that forbids South Korean citizens from contacting the communists in North Korea. This was a rotten deal from the beginning and it still went through. What bothers me is that there has been no talk of treason regarding Mr. Beom-hoon from the South Korean government. I call it treason because I know that if I were to broker a deal with the North Koreans where I would supply money and equipment that would be used to modernize their military, IÕd be breaking some export laws. IÕd also be helping a communist country that wouldnÕt mind slaughtering their southern neighbors who are allies with the United States. IÕd be a traitor.
Why isnÕt Kim Beom-hoon? Let me know your opinion with an email.
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