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Lottery sales to go onlineUpdated: 2012-09-10 18:37 ( chinadaily.com.cn) Comments(0)PrintMailLarge Medium Small
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Three-quarters of China's lottery ticket buyers chose to make the transaction via the Internet for convenience, according to China Online Lottery Research Report.

Commissioned by China Lottery Industry Salon to look at sales between 2011 and 2012, the report is the first comprehensive survey of China's lottery industry in 26 years, covering a host of buyer information including buyers' level of education, their domestic situation, where they bought tickets, and the amount of money they spent.

Among the 14,638 buyers surveyed in 2011, 51.4 percent were younger than 30 years old; the proportion rose to 58.1 percent in 2012, based on a sample of 9,592 buyers, said the report.

However, the survey showed online lottery sales have been slower since this March, when the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the General Administration of Sports jointly announced that some websites selling lottery tickets will be banned due to difficulties regulating them.

Now other means of paperless tickets, such as sales via cellphone application, have become the new focus of the industry.

Already about 40 percent of the people surveyed bought their tickets through their cellphones, despite the technology used still being in its infancy, and experts predict sales by cellphone will continue to increase.

"China's mobile Internet industry has huge potential, it has 128 million iOS and Android devices, as many as in the United States," said Duan Bin, an Internet industry expert.

"The research might have its limitations since its all done online," added Su Guojing, initiator of China Lottery Industry Salon. "But it's a big step forward for the industry, and we hope to do more in the future."