THE lottery scandal in Xi'an is not the only one of its kind in the country. Since lotteries became legal again in China in 1984, the lottery business has grown rapidly and so have the disputes.

Yearly sales of lottery tickets have now hit 40 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion) and over 57.2 billion yuan (US$7 billion) of welfare capital has been generated since 1984. But irregularities have also cropped up frequently.

On February 5, TV viewers found that something appeared to be wrong with the broadcasting of a welfare lottery draw which used double-coloured balls to select winning numbers. On the screen, the full-picture shot of the whole scene and the smaller shot of the ball did not seem to be in accord. It could mean that the shots were tampered with.

Another dispute in Shenyang of Northeast China's Liaoning Province was even more dramatic. A Mr. Ding had bought over 6,000 yuan (US$725) of lottery tickets and the result showed he had won a big prize totalling 604,000 yuan (US$73,035). But Ding was later told that his ticket was a blank and had not been recorded in the computer.

Ding went to court. The evidence proved it was a mistake by the lottery seller that had led to the dispute and the lottery centre had to pay the prize money.

Fake tickets also turn up now and then. A lottery seller told a buyer surnamed Wen in Qingdao of East China's Shandong Province that he had a ticket which had won over 60,000 yuan (US$7,255), but without an ID card, he couldn't collect the money. Thinking he was a sure winner, Wen bought the lottery ticket for 1,000 yuan (US$121).

Wen found that the number on the ticket was the same as the winning number published in the newspapers, so he thought he would make a big and quick profit. But when he went to cash in, he was told the ticket was a fake.

News carried in the Beijing Times on January 31 this year said lottery sales in a Beijing suburb had become chaotic. All the prizes were seized by angry lottery ticket buyers and one lottery staff member was injured.

But the guilty party was a ticket seller who used a famous actor and expensive prizes such as cars and television sets to tempt buyers. Later the prizes were found to be illusory.

(Star News)