Shanghai Welfare Lottery

The Shanghai welfare lottery was set up in July 1987. Annual ticket sales have shot up from a few million yuan in the first year to billions. Its total and per capita sales were the highest of all China welfare lotteries for five consecutive years. During the past 17 years, a welfare fund of 1.5 million has been gathered from the total 5 billion yuan proceeds and used to help the elderly, disabled, orphans and poor.

The traditional “Shanghai Fengcai” welfare lottery began sales at strategic points on the welfare network, and the first prizewinning number was announced on TV in 1998. In order to take up the necessary market portion, in October 1999 Shanghai became the first municipality to implement a primary computer hot-line service. In June 2000, this groundbreaking municipality again became the initiator of hot-line lottery ticket sales. The Shanghai Welfare Lottery Center subsequently accepted the commission from the Ministry of Civil Affairs to aid the setting up of Tibet’s welfare lottery system -- the third welfare lottery hot-line to have been established in China, the other two being in Beijing and Shanghai.

In addition to expanding the market, the welfare lottery center cautions the public about buying lottery tickets, making clear that they are not like stocks and shares. The center has thrown the welfare project, built on the proceeds of lottery ticket sales, open to public scrutiny. It also holds forums on the relationship between “real time winning” and “time-delay winning”. Everyone who buys a lottery ticket expects to win, but even if they didn’t, part of money they spend on a ticket goes towards the welfare fund from which they themselves will eventually benefit and which in the meantime supports those in need.

The center has organized representatives of lottery ticket buyers to visit its computer room and lottery administration to ensure operations are open, fair and regulated. A large rotating disc has been erected on Nanjing Road to attract more ticket sales and ensure transparency in lottery administration.

Successful as it is, the “Shanghai Fengcai” welfare lottery still has plenty of room for improvement. Compared to lottery ticket sales in more developed countries – 85 percent in the USA, 64 percent in France, and 70 percent in Japan, Shanghai has barely scratched the surface of its lottery ticket-selling potential.