Lottery addicts risk losing it all, warn experts

Experts Wednesday warned that millions of people are addicted to buying lottery tickets, and have urged the government to rein in the fast-growing industry.

China has nearly 7 million lottery addicts out of a total 200 million who regularly play the game, according to a recently released report. The compilers of the report have recommended that the government should strictly regulate lottery agencies, in a bid to prevent increasing addiction to lottery ticket buying. 

Those obsessed with the game develop signs of a psychological addiction, which can negatively impact their financial situation, family relations and other important aspects of life, concluded a survey by the Lottery Research Center of Beijing Normal University in March.

Chen Haiping, a researcher from the center, told the Global Times that insufficient supervision of lottery agencies is an important reason for the increase in lottery addicts. 

"Government should restrict the types of lottery, the buyer's age and marketing measures, but those can hardly be found in current regulations on lotteries," he said.

Only two lottery operators are functioning in China, organized by the sports lottery administration center and the social welfare lottery management center, both controlled by government. 

A service specialist from the social welfare lottery management center, who would not reveal her name, said that every lottery station must put up warnings over lottery risks, which is required by the lottery management regulation. Only those over 18 can legally buy tickets.  

"However, I've never seen these kind of warnings and no ticket kiosk has been punished over that. Many kiosks only advertise that buyers will win a big prize, but will never remind them of the risks," Chen said. 

The Global Times found that some lottery kiosks had a picture of the Taoist God of Wealth, instead of the warning slogans. 

 A migrant worker from Hebei Province, surnamed Chen, who works as a security guard in a community in Chaoyang district, told the Global Times yesterday that he spends half his salary every month on lottery tickets.  

"I've been buying tickets for eight years, and I spend over 1,000 yuan ($158.70) a month," he said.

Lottery tickets cost from as low as two yuan upwards, and prizes can reach from small amounts into the millions of yuan. 

Chen, who regards playing the lottery as a second career, believes he will one day win big.   

"I always win, although I've never won a big payout," he said. 

A lottery ticket seller at Guanzhuang Subway Station, Chaoyang district, said that the majority of his buyers are migrant workers from nearby construction sites. 

"Most are people with low incomes, 70 percent of whom are regulars. Some even spend hundreds of yuan buying tickets," he said.

Chen said that according to their research, 73 percent of lottery ticket buyers have an average monthly income of 3,000 to 5,000 yuan and 2.4 percent of the buyers are under the age of 17.

"Some experts said most buyers are people with a low income and weak educational background, who have dreams of attaining sudden riches as a way to raise their status in society, but I think the situation has changed. Most respondents in our survey are people with a college degree, with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan," Chen noted.

Some people do win big on the lottery, but life still does not turn out as they expected. A Beijing resident, surnamed Yuan, won 3 million yuan, but still lives in an old apartment, as he spent much of his winnings on buying more tickets.

"Many people think lottery buyers will normally buy a big house or make an investment after winning a big prize, but the fact is that we will continue buying tickets more crazily," Yuan told the Beijing Times. 

Profits raised from lottery sales go to charitable causes, and according to the Ministry of Finance, over 200 billion yuan was spent on lottery tickets in China last year, up 33.3 percent from the year before.