China Welfare Lottery

The China Welfare Lottery Issuance Center (CWLC), which runs the welfare lottery, was authorized to issue lottery tickets in June 1987. Since then, the Welfare lottery has played an increasingly bigger role in providing valuable welfare funds.

By the end of 1999, a total of 39.52 billion Yuan (US$4.76 billion) worth of lottery tickets had been sold.

Reports indicate that more than 11.87 billion Yuan (US$1.43 billion) of social welfare funds had been collected as a result. Out of which, 1.5 billion Yuan (US$180 million) had been turned to the state as a special disaster relief fund and eight billion Yuan had been spent on welfare works.

Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed that from 1987 to 1997, governments at all levels invested 1.41 billion Yuan (US$169.8 million) into urban welfare facilities, while welfare lotteries provided to it 4.1 billion Yuan (US$493 million) during the same period.

Welfare lottery has been a major factor that keeps China's public welfare at pace with the country's furious economic development.

More than 81,000 welfare projects, including special education for mentally retarded children, have been established across China because of the money collected from welfare lottery.

At present, the Ministry of Civil Affairs collects 2.5 percent of the lottery sales for a special social welfare fund, which has financed the rebuilding of 103 children welfare institutions and treated some 2,000 disabled children.

To date, welfare lottery has expanded to cover 95 percent of the country, employing over 74,750 people.

A recent survey of welfare lottery aficionados showed that the China's lucky winners will not hesitate to spend their windfalls from welfare lottery.

Seventy-three percent of the respondents said they would spend the money right away to buy houses or cars, according to the survey by the China Welfare Lottery Center.

Economists were upbeat about the survey results, noting that lottery will be a boost to the country's domestic consumption.