A revised version of the soccer lottery bill was approved March 17 by an Upper House panel, bringing the lucrative but controversial sports promotion legislation one step closer to enactment.

In the vote by the Upper House Committee on Education and Science, a majority of the panel members supported the bill. Members from Komei and the Japanese Communist Party opposed it.

The revised bill, which is expected to be approved by the full chamber March 20 during a plenary session, will then be immediately returned to the Lower House for the revisions to be approved.

The bill, proposed by a nonpartisan group of lawmakers to obtain public funds to promote sports through a lottery system, is expected to clear the Diet late this month at the earliest.

The revisions, which were made mainly by members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its two smaller allies -- the Social Democratic Party and New Party Sakigake -- say the Education Minister will have the right to order the lottery stopped if it is found to adversely affect minors.

A clause was added to the bill so that a penalty would be imposed on soccer players and managers who have been paid to throw a match. If enacted, sales of lottery tickets would be allowed with stakes on J. League match results. It is expected to be introduced in 2000.

Lottery tickets would be sold in units of 100 yen and the maximum return would be more than 100 million yen. The probability of winning the maximum return would be about one in 1.6 million, according to the lawmakers proposing the bill.

They have estimated that ticket sales will hit 180 billion yen a year. Of that amount, up to 50 percent would go to lottery prizes, while about 15 percent would cover the lottery's operating costs.

As for the remaining 35 percent, the original bill had one half being reserved to promote sports and the other half going into the national treasury. However, a revision by the Upper House committee now gives the national treasury only a third of that 35 percent, with the remainder to be split evenly between municipalities and sports organizations to promote sports.

As for tracking the money, another revision stipulates that those who receive profits from the lottery should report to the Diet about how the money has been used. This change was made at the demand of the opposition Liberal Party.

The law was initiated by the Japanese Olympic Committee and the Japan Amateur Sports Association, which have complained that the nation has not spent a sufficient amount of public money on promoting sports activities, resulting in relatively poor performances by Japanese athletes at international competitions.