Lottery corruption scandal erupts in China

An alleged lottery corruption scam is snowballing into a big social media controversy in China. The main allegation is that RMB136 billion (US$19.5 billion) has been eaten up by corrupt lottery administrators.

It must be remembered that there has been “temporary” ban on online lottery in China for several year.

The latest controversy revolves around the accusation that it is almost impossible for ordinary lottery punters to win a major prize. Following the allegation, four former senior Welfare Lottery officials, led by disgraced former Welfare Lottery director Wang Suying, admitted that there was systemic corruption in the sector.

Government officially rejected the quantum of corruption. But its lack of transparency is making the matters only worse. The government refused to provide the details of losses on grounds that it would be inconvenient.

Publically available figures date back to 2012 and are contained in a National Audit Office report in 2015, which disclosed that corrupt lottery officials had stolen or misused almost RMB17 billion between January 2012 and October 2014.

Part of those losses was in the online sector, where administrators allegedly failed to officially report all online sales, pocketing the balance and triggering the long-running “temporary” suspension of online sales by the government which remains in force at present – three years on.