KEEPING FIT: Residents in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, exercise in Wanliutang Park on April 9, 2007. The fitness equipment was purchased with money raised through sports lottery (ZHANG WENKUI)

While a better-regulated market will only increase the public's trust and confidence in lotteries, prompting an even sharper increase of lottery sales, many experts have begun to question whether the boom in lottery tickets sales comes at the cost of the overall health of society.

In a paper published in 2010, Feng Baiming, a professor at Henan University of Economics and Law in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan Province, and a long-time lottery researcher, suggested that the size of China's lottery market should be regulated and kept below 250 billion yuan ($39.71 billion) by 2015 as a large industry might cause social problems.

Lottery addicts

At the peak of his lottery addiction, Ren Xiaofeng, a former employee of the Agricultural Bank of China's branch in Handan, north China's Hebei Province, spent 14.1 million yuan ($2.24 million) on lottery tickets on a single day.

Over the course of a month in 2007, Ren and his colleague, Ma Xiangjing, the only two employees with the keys to the bank's vault, stole a total of 45.35 million yuan ($7.20 million) from the vault and spent the entire amount on lottery tickets. Ren, mastermind of the bank theft, said in court later that the only two "big" prizes they won were 85,000 yuan ($13,500) and 18,000 yuan ($2,859), and they spent even these winnings on more lottery tickets.

Realizing that they would not win enough prize money to climb out of their hole of bank theft before being caught, Ren and Ma fled. Even as a fugitive, Ren had to fight the urge to buy lottery tickets for fear of being recognized and apprehended.

While Ren may be an extreme case of lottery addiction, lottery industry observers estimate that China has more than 4 million problem lottery players, or those whose addiction to gambling has begun to have an effect on their well-being and the well-being of their families.

"Problem gaming undermines social stability. For example, in some cases, lottery players embezzle public funds to buy tickets, which brings financial losses to the state. More commonly people gamble with their own savings that disrupts their lives," said Wang Xuehua, Executive Director of China Center for Lottery Studies, Peking University.

What is worse, demographically the low-income group, who can least afford to spend money, tends to be the worst hit by the spread of gaming addiction. According to a study conducted by Feng in 2008, China's least developed provinces and autonomous regions in terms of per-capita GDP, such as Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province, had the highest Lottery Developed Index figures in China.

Although the new rules on lottery administration stipulate that lottery issuers and sellers must organize professional training for ticket sellers, it does not specify the aim or content of the trainings. While it is hoped that lottery sellers will be able to recognize problem lottery players and cut them off at a certain point, the way a bartender would cut off a problem drinker, whether any of them will actually do so remains an open question.

A reporter with the Legal Daily newspaper visited dozens of lottery stores in east China's Jiangsu Province last December. Not one ticket seller advised the reporter on responsible gaming while many vendors tried to entice him by describing big prizes and lucky winners.

In 2011, the revenue of sports lotteries in Jiangsu exceeded 10 billion yuan ($1.59 billion), making Jiangsu the first province in China to hit this benchmark. According to lottery industry observers, this market boom has a lot to do with the introduction of a new type of quick draw lottery in Jiangsu last July, where players pick five numbers from 1 to 11. There are only 10 minutes between draws and no cap on how much one can bet. An anonymous former lottery addict told the Legal Daily that compared with regular lotteries, quick draw lotteries are even more addictive as the feedback is quicker.

"Some lotteries are too addictive while the advertising for lotteries focuses only on getting rich fast," Wang said.

The Ministry of Finance issued a notice on February 1, saying that lottery issuers and sellers should shift the focus of their advertising away from big prizes and toward the charitable projects funded by lotteries.

In 2009, Wang's center opened one of China first toll-free helplines for lottery addicts. She said that helplines alone are far from sufficient to solve the problem of lottery addiction, while the solution to the problem lies in promoting responsible gaming, which requires the efforts of the government, lottery issuers and the players themselves.

"Lottery players' money is why this industry exists, but China still lacks a support system for addicts," Wang said. "Part of the charitable funds raised by the lottery industry should be used to mitigate the industry's own negative effects."

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