Winning that Receipt Scratch Thingy

[Entropy_Rising]

Out of curiosity, on those extremely rare occasions when you are given receipts at restaurants, have any of you ever won any money on the little scratch-out prize game that comes on the receipts? I hope you guys know what I'm talking about. I have yet to win. In the US, when you lose, it usually says something like "Please try again." But I always get tickled when I see 协税光荣 - to cooperate with taxes is glorious. Classic.

[heifeng]

yep, I won 10 yuan once.

[my3rdlang]

Won 10yuan once at pizza hut.

[Luobot]

... on those extremely rare occasions when you are given receipts at restaurants ...

When you 买单！you can ask for the 发票 if you're in the scratching mood。

[heifeng]

fyi, some places really don't want to issue a receipt (so of course you HAVE to ask otherwise you will never just be voluntarily given one)..however, if they are really against giving you receipt you may be able to argue free stuff, i.e. drinks, as a compromise. one kaoyu place in wudaokou does this...wahaha

[trevelyan]

I won 5 RMB my first year in China. I had no idea at the time how rare an event it would prove to be.

[anon6969]

If you win, do you have to take it back to the restaurant you got it from?

It' isn't worth the cost of the journey back even if you do win 10kuai!

[heifeng]

Solution: scratch and redeem before you leave! ...it even rhymes

[BrandeX]

Myself, I have never heard of/seen such a thing in China, nor the USA.

[imron]

Do you ever pay the bill in restaurants?

I believe they're on all official receipts. Basically it was introduced as a means to get people to ask for receipts, thereby forcing restaurants to provide a paper trail for tax purposes, rather than just pocketing the cash and not declaring the income.

[cdn_in_bj]

If you scratch your receipt before leaving and "win", you can claim your "prize" at the restaurant.

If you've already left, then you can go to a tax bureau office to claim it.

[foodtarget]

I won 20 yuan from a hotel receipt in Beijing. I actually didn't scratch it off for a day or two after I moved out of the hotel (switched hotels due to pre-Olympic price hikes) since I didn't think I'd ever win. I took the receipt back to the hotel and they gave me my prize That's what they get for trying to make me pay 600 RMB a night in late July!

[Entropy_Rising]

Funny that a few weeks after posting this I would win for the first time - 10 yuan, at Pizza Hut - but it was even more lucky because I actually won 5 yuan on two separate receipts.

[gougou]

I won four times by now, three of which in Shanghai (do they have a higher percentage of winners?). 5, 5, 10 and 20 (this being in Beijing, so monetarily they're even).

You might have problems when you have to claim expenses for your job, as some places don't want to give you a new receipt if you won. Happened to a colleague of mine, who won 10 kuai on a 50 kuai receipt. The staff was happy to give her the 10 kuai, but unwilling to give her either half of the receipt back (you can tear of the part with the scratching part) or a new receipt (as I had always gotten before).

[TCcookie]

This scratch thing is interesting. I haven't heard of it, and they didn't have it when I was in China a couple years ago, or at least I didn't notice it. How long has this been around?

[gougou]

When I arrived around three years ago, they already had it in Beijing. However, it differs from place to place - several places I traveled to in Guangdong province had receipts without possibility to win anything. Guess they were thinking that nobody pays taxes down there anyway, so might as well cut your losses...

[imron]

They've had it for years. It's most likely that you just didn't notice it.