Lottery addiction goes unchecked in China

(Ecns.cn) -- A recent survey reveals that seven million of China's 200 million lottery players are in fact addicts, and that 430,000 of them suffer from extreme lottery addiction, according to the Beijing News.

Experts say China's Lottery Development Index (the ratio of a country's annual lottery revenue against its GDP) has been more than 0.5 percent since 2011, which is higher than the U.S. and many European countries.

However, in China, there is scant support for high-risk gamblers.

Lottery fever

Hu Lijun is an experienced lottery ticket seller who has run a store for more than seven years. He says many of his customers are obsessed with purchasing lottery tickets and spend money compulsively to fuel their addiction.

The money raised from lotteries is an important source of funding for government welfare and athletic programs, but few people buy lottery tickets because they want to contribute to such things, says Hu.

Duan Bin is such a customer – he can spend 2,000 yuan (US$317) on lottery tickets in a matter of minutes, according to Hu. Duan is unconcerned about where the money goes, and if he doesn't win, he just chalks it up to bad luck, Hu adds.

Hu's shop is adorned with many auspicious symbols such as fortune cats and money frogs, which lottery players believe will bring good luck.

According to Hu, people may think that lottery winners buy houses, nice cars or make wise investments, but in reality many of them only use the money to buy more lottery tickets in the hopes of winning even bigger prizes.

Irrational behavior

Last March, a lottery ticket buyer was apprehended after cheating a store owner in Xicheng District of Beijing, and later admitted that he could not restrain his impulse to buy tickets, reports the Beijing News.

The man named Wang Qiang spent 200 yuan (US$31.7) on lottery tickets but did not win, so he asked the store owner to sell him more on credit. Wang then pretended to call his family and ask for 30,000 yuan (US$4,755) and pressed the store owner to sell him more tickets before the money arrived.

Such people are lottery addicts and compulsive gamblers, and the money they spend on their habits sometimes exceeds their monthly incomes, according to a survey conducted last month by the Lottery Research Center at Beijing Normal University.

Most addicts are between 18 to 45 years old, relatively uneducated and earn 1,500 to 3,000 yuan (US$238 to US$475) a month, the survey revealed.

Because of their low social positions, they hope to change their lives through instant payoffs, experts say. However, such addictions can result in problems such as theft and bankruptcy, which can have a negative impact on society and the development of the lottery industry.

No support

According to Hu Lijun, the more lottery tickets he sells the more money he makes, but he sometimes feels guilty for taking advantage of lottery addicts.

Dr. Chen Haiping, a psychology expert at Beijing Normal University, says the sales pattern of lottery tickets reflects a problem with the GDP-oriented industry, and that the government should strengthen the regulation of lottery ticket sales to prevent severe addiction.

China introduced its first administrative regulations on lotteries in July of 2009 in an effort to ensure the credibility of the rapidly growing industry. However, it is not the ticket sellers that persuade people to buy, but the lottery itself, says Mr. Yuan, a lottery store owner in Beijing.

Chen Haiping adds that a support system for lottery addicts is also very important, but as far as he knows only a lottery research institute at Peking University has a hotline to offer advice to addicts.

Chen notes that many countries have comprehensive prevention and support systems for lottery addicts, and that some countries even force lottery sellers to refuse service to severe addicts.

Feng Baiming, director of the Lottery Research Institute at the Henan University of Finance and Economics, suggests that China should establish a special fund with lottery money to help problem gamblers and mitigate the industry's negative effects.