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China's biggest ever lottery win shrouded by mystery, suspicion
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-20 17:04
Cheng had failed to create actual tickets with the numbers, meaning he could not collect the money.
In November 2007, Zhao Liqun, a 37-year-old lottery agent in the northeast city of Anshan, was given life imprisonment for taking advantage of a flaw in the Welfare Lottery "3D" system to illegally cash in lottery tickets for 28 million yuan ($4.1 million).
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He then "bought" winning tickets and claimed the prizes from two or three lottery machines simultaneously. He also asked neighbors and friends to cash tickets at the Liaoning provincial Welfare Lottery Center for him.
The lottery center discovered the scam at the end of 2006 and reported it to the police, who arrested Zhao in January 2007.
Twelve people were found guilty of manipulating Sports Lottery scratch cards in the northwestern city of Xi'an in 2004 and were given prison terms ranging from six months to 13 years.
Though the odds of winning the Welfare Lottery's top prize is about one in 17.7 million, many ordinary Chinese buy tickets in the hope of improving their lives, generating huge returns every year.
Xia Xueluan, a professor with the Department of Sociology at Peking University, said such a gigantic win at such low odds had an influential effect on ordinary lottery players, who all expected a windfall.
"But suspicions over the big win are also normal, because similar scandals have happened in the past," Xia said.
He said an independent assessment agency of lotteries would be useful to regulate the industry, to oversee the use of lottery funds and release information on a monthly, quarterly or half-yearly basis, like companies listed on the stock markets. "Transparency is important because it is about social justice and can give people confidence."
Li Guangyun, deputy director of Henan Provincial Welfare Lottery Center, insisted that the win of 88 stakes with a single ticket was true.
"The authenticity (of the win) is indisputable," Li said, responding to Internet accusations of manipulation. "We will ensure the security of the winner's personal information and open a special channel with no intrusion by the media and the public for him to claim the prize if necessary."
Under China's lottery regulations, top prizes must be claimed within 60 days of the draw and personal information about winners should remain secret.
If the prize is unclaimed, the money rolls over into the next jackpot.
Feng Baiming, director of Lottery Research Institute at Henan University of Finance and Economics, attributed the controversy over the 360 million yuan jackpot win to a lack of transparency.
Feng proposed a panel of player representatives to supervise the draws because the process "is not without room for improvement."
"But some speculation on the winner's identity has gone too far and it is against the spirit of protecting privacy," Feng said. "On this matter, the public's right to know is limited.
"What we need to study is how to prevent people from becoming addicted to expectations of a big windfall," he said.
Since the first Welfare Lottery draw in 1987, China has sold 325.4 billion yuan ($47.7 billion) in tickets. Sales of the Welfare Lottery, administered by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, hit 60.4 billion yuan ($8.88 billion) in 2008 alone and the sales of all lotteries, including the Welfare and Sports lotteries, are expected to exceed 130 billion yuan ($19 billion) this year.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs said a total of 110 billion yuan ($16.1 billion) of public welfare funds was raised through the Welfare Lottery over the past two decades and the funds were earmarked on social welfare, relief and public utilities.
According to China's Regulations on Lottery Management, the money raised through lotteries is divided into three parts: the jackpot, the lottery management fees and the lottery public funds. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for supervising lotteries nationwide while the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the General Administration of Sport are in charge of managing the Welfare and Sports lotteries separately.
More than a third of the money collected is allocated to public funds, which were usually spent on public welfare, such as the development of public sports facilities, education and health care for the disabled, according to the ministries, while the jackpot accounted for another third.
