In the latest in gambling news, we will talk about lotteries. The different lotteries available across the world are huge generators of income. And each government stands to earn from this, which adds to the country’s budget, or will contribute to a lot of helpful social and economic programs that will also benefit the citizens. Even when you bet on sports, the potential to earn a lot if very high. And since it is such a great way to earn from, corruption always stays close. And no country is immune, even China.
There are allegations of corruption on the lottery spreading around social media. The rumor is, that the administrators for the Chinese lottery have been embezzling almost $20 billion from the proceeds. Apparently, Beijing authorities are denying that the corruption exists.
China Lottery Woes
This could be in relation to a video that is online, where there were former officials who are admitting to systematic corruption in that group. The high-ranked former officials’ confession has brought about an uproar on local social media. The reports are, the amount missing in lottery sales went to the pockets of officials in the lottery field. The government is trying to downplay the amount lost, and are saying that it would not be convenient to reveal the amount embezzled. This, however, caused more rumors that it could be more than that.
The National Audit Office of China reported back in 2015 that lottery officials have misused or stolen a lot RMB 17 billion in the period between January 2012 and October of 2014. While the means of doing this varies, part of the stolen money comes from not declaring online sales. This means that the government has suspended temporarily the sales online back in March 2015. The suspension is still going on up to today.
This is a huge blow for the lottery field, considering that the revenues from the lotteries are doing great. In fact, this year could be another record-breaking year for the industry. In fact, sports lottery sales are already higher than the welfare lottery, which used to be the top revenue generator amongst the lotteries.