Lottery Management Needs to Overcome Systemic Obstacles
In order to implement the "Lottery Administration Regulations," the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the General Administration of Sport recently jointly issued the "Detailed Implementation Rules of the Lottery Administration Regulations," which will take effect on March 1. The "Implementation Rules" are based on the "Regulations" and further explain, refine, and supplement relevant terms and provisions in the "Regulations."
No doubt, the "Implementation Rules" are an important institutional guarantee for China's lottery development and management after the implementation of the "Lottery Administration Regulations" in July 2009. As long as they are conscientiously "implemented," China's lottery industry can hopefully reach a new level.
However, upon carefully reading the "Implementation Rules," although they clearly define the responsibilities of lottery management, issuance, sales, drawing, prize redemption, and fund management, reiterate the principle that lotteries should not be sold to minors, and clarify the flow of unclaimed prize money, apart from stating that "lottery prizes shall be paid to lottery winners according to the rules of the lottery game" and providing a clear definition of "illegal lotteries," there seem to be few other provisions addressing the "crucial issues." Indeed, as industry insiders have pointed out, the situation of multiple authorities managing different aspects has not been broken, and the regulations regarding the distribution of public welfare funds are still unclear. For example, the allocation process of public welfare funds lacks supervision, and the effectiveness of their use also lacks effective evaluation; the social responsibility of the lottery industry is yet to be defined.
As a method of national income redistribution and government fundraising, lotteries are called the "smiling tax goddess." According to data from the Ministry of Finance, in recent years, the scale of lottery sales has steadily expanded. In 2011, the scale of national lottery sales exceeded 200 billion yuan for the first time, reaching 221.5 billion yuan, with a collection of 63.4 billion yuan in lottery public welfare funds. However, past incidents of lottery cheating have not only tested the credibility of the government but also caused great harm to many "lottery players."
Recalling the "BMW Lottery Case," Xinhua News Agency once published an article pointing out that the current separate issuance systems of welfare lotteries and sports lotteries have become systemic obstacles to the further development of the lottery industry. This not only leads to homogeneous competition among products but also delays the introduction of a unified administrative regulation for lottery issuance and management. It also causes confusion between government and enterprise roles and weakens supervision. Clearly, the reason why progress in lottery legislation has been difficult is mainly due to the legislative body's inability to coordinate the departmental interests of the two issuing agencies. Now, the "Implementation Rules" have been introduced, but the industry remains "separate," without fundamentally eliminating these systemic obstacles.
In fact, situations where lottery institutions violate the wishes of lottery winners or fail to pay out winnings according to the game rules, often demanding additional contributions, are just one aspect of the chaos in the entire lottery industry and not the core issue, nor the entirety of the problem. The temptation of profit combined with insufficient supervision is precisely the key reason why lottery fraud cases continue to occur. From the "Cai Shita Case" to the "BMW Lottery Case," all have triggered public concerns about the lottery industry.
Moreover, compared to global counterparts, the redemption period for Chinese lotteries is significantly shorter. In foreign countries, the longest redemption period for lotteries is six years, mostly ranging from six months to one year, with the shortest being three months. Despite having more advanced information and transportation systems than ours, their redemption periods are longer. This naturally reflects respect for the rights of lottery players and the protection of the ownership rights of winning players over their prizes. We often talk about aligning with international standards, so why don't we also align with the international standard regarding the lottery redemption period?
In conclusion, while the "Implementation Rules" represent significant progress, there are still many areas that need "further improvement." Issues such as confusion between government and enterprise roles, the merging of official and commercial functions, and "self-regulation by superiors" remain as systemic obstacles. Unless these systemic barriers are eliminated, non-systemic problems will persist, indicating that China's lottery industry, whether in terms of development or management, has not made much progress and still has a long way to go.
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