World Cup Wagers Boost Massive Lottery Sales in China

The popularity of World Cup betting has caused gambling in other areas to see increased activity, as lottery sales shows immense growth in the past year.



Gambling news indicates that sports lottery sales saw a massive increase in just a year’s time, as the bets grew 83% form 2013. It managed to fetch a staggering 19.24 billion Yuan ($3.13 billion), a figure that the Ministry of Finance (MOF) reported on its website.



Additionally, welfare lottery tickets also increased 18.1% from a year before, recordings earnings of 16.81 billion Yuan. Overall, China’s whole lottery marker rose 19.2 % from the same time last year, amounting to 178.84 billion Yuan in only the first six months of 2014.



Out of all the Chinese cities and provinces, Beijing holds the title for having the greatest lottery increase in the month of June. The lottery sales generated 1.3 billion Yuan more than a year prior. Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Tianjin were also among the cities that have experienced large growth in sales over the past year, as reported by the MOF.

Controversy regarding the lottery proceeds

Some experts have expressed concern about the proceeds from the tickets sales. There has been controversy that not all lottery providers follow Chinese gambling laws, but are rather involved in shady dealings.



Popular economist Lang Xianping warned people to stop buying lottery tickets. “We don’t know where the money goes and we don’t know how much goes to people playing the lottery. We should hit out at corruption in the lottery.”