This Day, That Year: June 26

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

In June 1992, Beijing issued the first soccer lottery tickets in the capital as seen in the item from China Daily. The lottery was sponsored by the Chinese Football Association.

Lotteries in China can be traced back to the 1880s. But after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, authorities banned gambling.

It was not until the country embraced the reform and opening-up policy in 1978 that the government started rethinking lotteries.

In 1986, the State Council, China's Cabinet, approved a plan proposed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs to introduce lotteries.

On July 26, 1987, Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, took the initiative by issuing the country's first lottery tickets.

In 1989, a sports lottery was introduced nationwide for the first time in an attempt to raise funds for the 11th Asian Games.

In 1994 the Sports Lottery Management Center under the State Physical Culture Administration was established.

China has two lotteries: the sports lottery and the welfare lottery. The country's total lottery sales rose about 20 percent year-on-year to 511.5 billion yuan ($74.4 billion) last year, official data showed. The Ministry of Finance previously approved two companies, 500.com and China Sports Lottery Operation Co, to engage in online lottery sales under a pilot program.

Facing the growing lottery market, authorities have accelerated innovation in the sports lottery. In 2017, the central government announced plans to transform Hainan province into a horse racing and sports lottery hub.

Despite the hike in popularity, the lottery has also long been plagued by scandals.

Last year, five senior lottery officials were investigated on corruption charges.

Early this year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs vowed to beef up oversight of its lottery system to restore public confidence in the country's major platform for charitable endeavors.

The measures involve new system designs that aim to strengthen information disclosure and internal auditing.