Can Chinese Gambling Laws Survive Fixed-odds Lottery?

AGTech and its joint venture with Ladbrokes – Asia Gaming Technologies, have revealed impressive results of their Lucky Racing fixed-odds rapid-draw lottery game in China.

The game is played in full compliance with the strict Chinese gambling laws, yet a problem became evident with the way the laws are interpreted by different cadres of the Chinese communist judiciary.

Total sales of the highly popular lottery game have already exceeded RMB 100 million ($15.7 million) since the official launch on August 30, 2011. These figures in fact exceed all other lottery activities in the Hunan province and online sportsbooks in China.

The AGTech and Ladbrokes joint venture is now in a unique position to capitalize on the growth and launch other stable virtual games for China Sports Lottery. This expansion could target the exponentially growing leisure and entertainment cash of Chinese gamers, which have only limited gambling options in the country.

The coveted game is scheduled for expansion across the whole of China at both land-based betting shops and the recently approved media channels such as internet, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and mobile casinos in China.

At the Q3 financial results presentation of AGTech, the company spokesman shared with China gambling news: “The Directors are optimistic about the prospects of the sports lottery market. The future lottery development in China will include online and mobile betting with the development focusing on betting games including real and virtual sports games and electronic scratch tickets.”

It remains to be seen just how far gambling can be bent in Communist China without raising serious concerns from protectionist government. Chinese gaming market is indeed a juicy pie that many hungry foreign gaming operators would love to take a bite from.