A pilot horse race lottery might be launched before 2008 in China with Wuhan as one of the candidate cities, according to a report by China News Service.

 

Related government departments have put horse race lotteries on the agenda, Liu Zhiren, a counselor of the State Council, revealed at the International Horse Race Festival in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.

 

Liu indicated that a joint proposal had been made by the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province and several other member political advisers to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on issuing horse race lotteries.

 

In the past, local governments have built parks for horse racing, attempting to revive a domestic horse industry by using foreign expertise in running horse race lotteries. But most of them have been shut down for suspected involvement in gambling outside of the lottery system.

 

In the early 1990s, Guangzhou was chosen by the government as a pilot city for horse race wagering, but the practice was halted in 1999.

 

As a sport, horse racing is popular in more than 80 countries and regions around the world. Equestrian sports are also an official event in the Olympic Games.

 

The four-day International Horse Race Festival held in Wuhan last week was one of the few such events held by domestic cities to both promote horse racing as a sport and lobby the central government to issue horse race lotteries.

 

As a new type of sport lottery, horse racing is said to have great potential to raise money for the sports industry in China. The money raised could be used to breed fine varieties of horses, which is essential to improving China's overall level of horsemanship competition.

 

The State Sport General Administration (SSGA)'s lottery administration centre is in charge of sport lotteries in China.

 

(China Daily October 7, 2006)