They say lightning does not strike twice at the same place - but try telling that to a 21-year-old from Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

Zhang, who was visiting friends in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, won a cool 25 million yuan (US$3 million) in January after buying some lottery tickets for fun.

And some years ago, she struck 2 million yuan (US$240,000) in lottery winnings.

As overnight millionaires are born daily across the country, it is no wonder that lottery sales are booming, especially because of the debut of various kinds to suit different tastes.

In Shanghai, for example, a local welfare lottery called Shanghai Style produced 13 millionaires within only 20 days earlier this year.

The lottery has become so ubiquitous that during the Spring Festival, many people chose to give lottery tickets as gifts to friends and relatives.

A way of life

The vast majority of lottery buyers pick numbers blindly, using lucky numbers, anniversaries, birthdays, number generators, or quick picks.

But regular winners say there is a scientific method to the madness.

A Shiyan resident surnamed Chen in central China's Hubei Province who says he buys every issue of sports lotteries does daily research, collecting up-to-date information, to increase his odds of winning. Sometimes he uses lottery averages to pick his winning numbers.

"The lottery is more than just a game for me," Chen says. "It's a way of life."

However, Duan Man, a Beijing resident in her late 20s, maintains that "lottery is sheer speculation" with buyers hoping that the "Lottery Fairy" will smile on them.

"For me, winning a few hundred yuan is not a lot compared to my salary. I play the lottery not because I want money but because I like waiting for the lottery results. I get terribly excited," says Duan, who dabbles in various kinds of lotteries.

Football craze

Among the country's dozens of lotteries, football betting is the hottest.

Unlike the number-selecting lotteries which have a lot to do with superstition, football betting relies on information and analysis.

Last year, China sold 7.91 billion yuan (US$965 million) worth of soccer lottery tickets, 848 million yuan (US$103 million) more than the previous year, official statistics show.

With the support of governments and soccer fans, the soccer lottery has developed rapidly and 23 people or groups won the top prize of 5 million yuan (US$600,000) last year, says Zhang Hao, director of China Sports Lottery Administration.

Matches from the Italian Serie A, the English Premier League, the German Bundesliga, the French First Division and European championships were selected.

"Betting on football is a truly globalized form of gambling. The trend started during the 1994 World Cup in the United States when every match was broadcast live," Zhang says.

"Modern communication technology enables everyone to receive the information at the same time."

To spice up soccer betting, China issued a new soccer lottery last month allowing fans to bet on how many goals are scored by each of 12 select teams in a round of the ongoing Italian Serie A.

Betting on goals is more difficult and challenging for fans to win than the win-tie-loss format, which started in 2001.

Half the turnover of one edition of the goal-betting lottery is returned to buyers as prize money; and first prize winners who get the answers right for all the 12 teams will win 70 percent of the total prize pool, Zhang explains.

Poor benefit

It's not the winners who benefit from the boom, lottery officials say.

For example, a grand health-and-fitness square which can hold 3,000 people opened to the public in January in Maoming of south China's Guangdong Province where residents can exercise and play basketball, football, volleyball and badminton for free, with lottery revenues.

Zhang says that lottery supervision has been enhanced to guarantee that the revenue from sports and soccer lotteries are used to improve people's health, to develop the country's sports sector and to upgrade education facilities in poor areas.

A non-governmental national lottery trade confederation - China Lottery Work Committee - was established last month in Beijing to help manage lottery issuing and provide scientific information on lottery legislation and management.

Welfare lottery sales in China exceeded 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) last year, generating 7 billion yuan (US$843 million) for the country's public welfare fund; and this year's figure is expected to hit 22 billion yuan (US$2.65 billion), officials say.

"Lotteries are also a kind of charity in China since most of the funds go to the disabled, the poor, orphans and disadvantaged senior citizens," says Yang Jianchang, executive deputy president of the China Social Work Association.

Since its inception in 1987, welfare lotteries in China have collected 32 billion yuan (US$3.9 billion) for public-welfare funds, contributing to 120,000 public-welfare projects nationwide.

Underground gambling

The booming sector, however, has spawned rampant underground lotteries across the country, especially in rural areas, experts say.

For instance, at 5 pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, activity at many fresh markets and factories in Pingjiang County of central China's Hunan Province stops temporarily as people await the lottery draw. Punters can bet on any of 49 numbers and winners can get prizes of up to 40 times their stakes.

The authorities are taking various measures to crack down on these illegal lotteries.

Hunan Public Security Bureau spokesman Li Jiede says his bureau has cracked down on more than 13,600 illegal lottery cases in the province at the end of last year, involving more than 96,000 people.

The bureau encourages people to expose underground lotteries with those providing tip-offs getting up to 200,000 yuan (US$24,000) as rewards.

In Guangdong, 620 underground lottery outlets were shut down during a month-long crackdown late last year, including the largest bust involving more than 15 million yuan (US$1.81 million) in cash.

Underground lotteries are more than just gambling; and the government must be extra careful about tackling the problem, says Xia Jiechang, an economics professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"The problem is that more people in the rural sector, youngsters and the poor, are being lured into the activity. The problems of debt, poor attention at schools and broken homes are bound to follow. It will become a burden on society."

"Our research shows that gambling is a kind of tax on the poor because they are the ones who indulge most frequently in it. We also have to keep in mind that gambling is not an income-creating activity. It only transfers money from one hand to the other," Xia cautions.

Insiders say underground lotteries have spread rapidly from southern and eastern China to the interior because of their flexible rules and aggressive promotion.

To tackle that, official lotteries should be more accessible, easier to bet on, and pay out more, they suggest.
 
(China Daily March 2, 2004)