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"Buying lotteries for me is only for fun. What really interests me is the lottery type that allows you to know you won or immediately after you scrape open the seal. But I believe the football lottery will at least boost my interest in watching soccer matches."
CHINA'S long-heralded first football lottery is finally in the offing, amid authorities' increasing concerns over the spread of football gambling around the country.
If everything goes as scheduled, the new lottery will stage its debut within the next two months, with promising economic benefits and far-reaching social influence, according to Sun Jinfang, director of the sports lottery administrative centre, the watchdog group under the State Sport General Administration.
A general plan of the new lottery's rules and the ceiling payout has been submitted to the Ministry of Finance, waiting for its final go-ahead, Sun said.
Sun revealed the information during a recent visit to Shanghai to check the city's preparations for the newcomer in China's lottery circles. Shanghai and 11 other provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Tianjin and Guangdong, have been chosen to conduct a pilot run of the new lottery before its nationwide launch.
The inspection included the hardware and financial readiness, staff training and preparations in case of emergency, according to Sun.
"We should not make a hasty move when it comes to such a new thing; rather we have to get every tiny detail ready for its final unveiling," she said.
Insiders say one of the toughest tasks now for Sun and the centre is the readjustment of the current sports lottery software system to make it compatible with the coming football lottery.
Rather than allowing people to bet on the Chinese Division A and B Soccer League, the new lottery will begin with betting on the British Premier League and Italian Division 1 League on the grounds that European soccer leagues present a more steady and mature format than their Chinese peers.
Based on 13 weekly matches in the two leagues, bettors will make their guesses about their results before buying lottery tickets.
The Ministry of Finance will choose one among three optional sets of rules, namely, guessing the win-draw-loss results, final scores and goals of concerned matches.
As the lottery's jackpot is accumulated on a national basis, the top payout will most likely surpass the existing 5 million yuan ($600,000) limit of sports and welfare lotteries. Winners will probably share the final payout.
"The football lottery will be a breakthrough in China's lottery history because your chance to win to a great extent involves technical and intellectual factors, including your understanding and foresight of the matches and teams," said Zhu Nanjun, director of Shanghai Sports Lottery Administrative Centre.
In that way, it is different from the present lotteries, which are won through a random selection of numbers, Zhu said.
Reaction to the approaching new lottery varies.
"I will have a try when it really comes," said Xu Shen, a local IT engineer and football fan. "It is to me a good chance (to net big money) because after all I have some knowledge about those European leagues to rely on."
Luo Cheng, Xu's colleague, thinks differently.
"Buying lotteries for me is only for fun. What really interests me is the lottery type that allows you to know whether you win or not immediately after you scrape open the seal," he said. "But I believe the football lottery will at least boost my interest in watching soccer matches."
Quite a few sports lottery sellers in the city agree that it is hard to predict whether the new football lottery will help pump up their sales, a major source of their income, though many potential buyers have come to their booths with inquiries about the new lottery.
According to a nationwide random survey conducted by China's top sports newspaper, Sports Weekly, a large number of those surveyed hold a wait-and-see attitude towards the football lottery, though some still dream of becoming millionaires overnight.
The survey also finds that many Chinese have little faith in the unfledged domestic soccer league which, in their eyes, is full of fly-by-night operations and scandals and therefore unsuitable as betting targets.
Meanwhile, some of those surveyed believe the lottery will serve as a tempting option to pull those engaged in illegal football gambling back to a legitimate type of lottery.
Analysts say that stand echoes authorities' mounting concerns over the threatening expansion of illegal football gambling in China.
Chinese media reports have revealed that such gambling practices have in recent years become increasingly popular in some major cities around the country, including Shenyang of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Xi'an of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province and Shanghai.
The situation is even worse in some southern provinces like Guangdong and Guangxi neighbouring the Hong Kong and Macao special administration regions. A growing number of people there, including students, have become involved in various types of underground wagering through the infiltration of Hong Kong and Macao gambling gangs.
Mostly lured by the high investment returns (unlike those legal lotteries which guarantee a 50 per cent return, football bookies often promise returns as high as 70 per cent of the jackpot), people have shown growing interest in such unlawful activities. With the aid of modern communication methods, they are better able to access illegal football betting games abroad.
Insiders say that punters in Guangdong wager an average 200 to 300 yuan ($24-36) on a single match, which amounts to at least a 10 million yuan ($1.2 million) jackpot. Authorities estimate that at least $40 million flowed out of the Chinese mainland last year to bookmakers abroad by means of illegal gambling.
Though it is premature to forecast that the football lottery will put an end to illegal football gambling, authorities seem resolute to enable the new lottery to play a major role in curbing unlawful gambling activities besides raising money for fund-thirsty Chinese sports.
Chen Liuye, director of Guangdong Sports Lottery Administrative Centre, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying that the legal football lottery will leave no room for the survival of unlawful gambling activities if the government carries into effect some necessary measures, including substantially raising the investment return rate.
That remains to be seen.
"The new football lottery has little appeal to me because I can't bear the rule that I have to share the payout with all others who have made correct guesses ," said Keng Zhang, a punter in Guangzhou, in a telephone interview.
"But I will probably invest some money if the jackpot is really big enough," added Zhang, who has invested nearly 20,000 yuan ($2,400) and almost broken even since he began engaged in local football gambling two years ago.