China evaluates regulating changes for lottery sales
Offline lottery operators could face an easier process to obtain a licence in China.
China.- Gaming authorities in China are allegedly evaluating a change in lottery sales regulation in order to set an easier process to obtain licences to offer offline lottery sales across the country. Starting in October this year, a recently approved amendment will rule that all unauthorised lottery sales are illegal.
“For lottery issuance institutions, [up to now] they had to seek approval from their respective provincial department of finance and department of civil affairs whenever they wanted to put forward special promotions or offer new prizes for their lottery products, especially during holiday times like the National Day break or Chinese New Year,” Su Guojing, an adviser on lottery matters to China’s central government and founder of an industry think tank called China Lottery Industry Salon, told GGRAsia referring to two major public holidays. “But now with the amended rules, they don’t need to do that anymore.”
Meanwhile, authorities revealed that “lottery sales increased 8.1% in full-year 2017 to nearly CNY426.67 billion (€54 billion), show data from the country’s Ministry of Finance. In the same period, Macau’s casino gross gaming revenue expanded by 19.1%, to MOP265.74 billion (€28.4 billion).”
The online segment has been banned ever since 2015 when the authorities determined it was forbidden to sell tickets for any lottery games as they highlighted the need to streamline government oversight and to curb fraud by unlicensed sellers.
