Lottery operation inapt

Should the sale of lottery tickets make money for the operaters and related departments?

Given that the country's lotteries are intended as a way of collecting money for public welfare, the answer should definitely be no.

However, the issuers of lottery tickets and the relevant departments are making money by taking 15 percent of the total sales as fees for the cost of running the lotteries.

It was perhaps understandable for the fee to be so high 20 years ago when the total annual sales of the sports lottery were about 100 million yuan ($16 million). Now the total annual sales of different kinds of lotteries have reached more than 300 billion yuan, those of sports lottery alone more than 100 billion yuan nationwide, but the 15 percent fee for running them has remained unchanged.

The rapid expansion in the size of the lotteries means the percentage used to cover costs should be reduced proportionally so more money can be used for public welfare.

Now the total amount of money deducted can be as high as 45 billion yuan a year, and its whereabouts remain unknown to the public.

Yet in a single case, the former deputy head of the national sports lottery center intentionally bought paper for lottery tickets at a higher price, with the result that more than 23 million yuan was lost as fees for running the lottery. In another case, a local head of welfare lottery center illegally spent such money on a luxury yacht.

The huge sums of money taken as fees to cover the costs of running the country's lotteries obviously present room for corruption. The auditing of the use of such money needs to be tightened to catch the corrupt elements who have been squandering the money that should have been used in helping the needy.

To solve the problem once and for all, experts need to be organized to determine the actual costs of running the country's lotteries and then make rules for the deduction of a percentage in proportion to the total sales of lottery tickets.

In 2012, the Ministry of Finance issued a notice about the implementation of the rules on the management of lotteries, which said that the fee to cover the cost of operating a lottery should be decreased.

But detailed rules are needed to specify the level of the fee and to regulate how it is collected and used.