New regulation on lotteries to be issued in 2008
Updated: 2007-12-03 09:32
"The regulation is expected to be issued next year, a result of growing public attention and the acceleration of the legislation process," Ding said.
Lotteries have generated enormous economic and social returns in China in the past two decades.
The country issued a total of 363 billion yuan ($49 billion) worth of lottery tickets by the end of last year, and more than a third of the money was spent on public projects such as the development of public sports facilities, education and healthcare for the handicapped.
At the same time, stories of lottery winners continue to fuel the hopes of many who buy the tickets.
Last week, an unidentified person from Gansu Province won the country's largest ever individual lottery prize of 102.7 million yuan ($13.9 million). The winner bought 20 identical "Double Colour Ball" tickets issued by the China Welfare Lottery at a cost of 40 yuan ($5.4).
But the industry has also encountered growing problems such as fraud and malpractice.
Last month, a 36-year-old lottery vendor in Anshan, Heilongjiang Province, was jailed for life for taking advantage of a flaw in the Welfare Lottery "3D" system to cash 28 million yuan ($3.8 million) in lottery tickets.
In 2004, several people were found guilty of manipulating a scratch-and-win sports lottery in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and were sentenced to varying terms in prison. The incident saw a lottery tickets contractor cheating his way to the top prizes - a BMW car and 120,000 yuan - by marking lottery tickets and employing four people to falsely claim the prizes.
The real lottery winner, Liu Liang, a young migrant worker, finally received the prize and accepted apologies from local sports authorities.
The authorities have also been stepping up efforts to crack down on lottery fraud.
Last month, the Finance, Public Security, Civil Affairs, Information Industry ministries and the General Administration of Sport jointly launched a campaign to crack down on illegal lottery selling on the Internet.
|
|