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| People buying up lottery tickets for a chance at quick returns |
Young Chinese continue to look for get-quick-rich schemes like live streaming and trying their luck in show business. But for those without the looks and talent, there's lottery tickets.
Gua gua le are scratch lottery tickets at 20 yuan each, which may make them seem accessible, but these days shops are fast selling out of them in cities like Beijing, Guangzhou and eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
In general the government has banned gambling unless buying tickets from the China Sports Lottery and China Welfare Lottery. People can either pick numbers or buy scratch cards.
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| Gua gua le tickets are popular if you can find them |
In the first quarter this year, sales from all types of lotteries nationwide exceeded 149.5 billion yuan (US$20.6 billion), an increase of 19.7 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Gua gua le sales accounted for 26.1 percent of the total, a n 81.4 percent year-on-year increase.
This compares to the national general budget revenue in the first quarter which was at 6.1 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 2.3 percent.
"The price per ticket is not high, and the prizes aren't big either. It makes people happy. It's entertainment," said Zhao Xijun, a finance professor at Renmin University in Beijing.
"There might be people who, for economic reasons, participate to relieve stress."
Or perhaps they are desperate for a chance at a quick return?
A 20 yuan ticket might win 500 yuan which at first may seem thrilling, but that will soon wear off and people will demand a bigger jackpot, like those lotteries in North America that go into the millions.
It's a slippery slope, but that's how you get people interested in lotteries, otherwise they'll stop playing them...
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