The China Welfare Lottery Issuing Center and China Sports Lottery Administration Center applied a national ban on sales of scratch-and-win tickets after a recent sports lottery fraud in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and a blast at a lottery market in Guiyang, Guizhou Province.

The Shanghai Daily reports that 10 percent of welfare lottery sales and 3 percent of sports lottery sales in the city are expected to be lost because of the ban.

The national ban came after a previous suspension of sports lottery tickets sales in Shaanxi because of the notorious Xi'an BMW fraud.

The Sports Administration of Shaanxi Province said Tuesday that Jia Anqing, director of the Xi'an Lottery Center, has been ordered to resign, with deputy director Zhang Yongmin suspended pending investigation.

On March 23, 18-year-old Liu Liang drew a winning ticket at the sports lottery sales site in Xi'an. The prize was 120,000 yuan (US$14,500) in cash and a new BMW car worth 480,000 yuan (US$58,000).

A day later, the Xi'an lottery center said the ticket Liu submitted was faked and refused to give him the prize.

When Liu protested, the center held a press conference saying that the ticket had been altered. But Liu told the press the faked ticket was not the original one he drew.

Yang Yongming, a private contractor for sports lottery tickets, later confessed to police that he had changed tickets to try to win prizes himself.

Yang and two accomplices, Liu Xiaoli and Yue Bin, have been arrested. A fourth suspect, Sun Chenggui, is still at large.

Liu is suing the Xi'an Sports Lottery Center and Xi'an Sports Administration.

Shaanxi Provincial Sports Administration Director Li Minghua said the incident was a “serious fraud case” that has hugely infringed upon lottery buyers' interests, marred the government's reputation and seriously damaged the province's economic and social development.

The administration attributed the incident to the lottery center's poor personnel evaluation, weak supervision of lottery sales and illegal lottery operation, as well as to loopholes in China's lottery laws.

An explosion on May 4 at a lottery market in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, also prompted authorities to issue the ban. 

Police are still investigating the incident in which 33 people were injured in the blast caused by a powerful explosive device.

Wang Xiaorong of the Shanghai Welfare Distribution Center said the ban on sales would be temporary.

It will not affect other lotteries, such as computer lottery and instant tickets sold at fixed lottery booths.

(eastday.com May 12, 2004)