Lottery ticket fever problematic for 430,000 Chinese

Beijing (CNS) – China is now home to over 200 million lottery players, and 3.2 percent of those appear to be psychologically addicted to the activity, while as many as 430,000 regulars have severe financial troubles as a result. These conditions often result in pressures that break up their families or drive them to crime, according to a survey issued on March 25.

The survey was conducted by the research center at Beijing Normal University (BNU) between September and December 2011, with 180,000 web users as respondents.

According to the survey, 93 percent of lottery ticket buyers are male, 73 percent are aged between 26 and 34, 2.4 percent are teenagers below the age of 17, and nearly 70 percent earn a monthly income of 3,000 to 5,000 yuan.

Buying a ticket to try your luck is still a behavior categorized under entertainment, and lottery-ticket purchasers are fundamentally different from overseas "problem gamblers," said Chen Haiping, a psychology professor at BNU.

Related data shows that over 200 billion yuan was spent on tickets in 2011.