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Online sale of lotteries banned to ensure regulation

No institutions will be allowed to sell lotteries on the Internet any more in China, said a circular issued Wednesday jointly by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the General Administration of Sports.

Those beginning to sell lotteries online prior to the issuance of the circular will stop the activity immediately as of the day when the document was issued.

Those failing to stop online sale on time will by penalized by telecommunication regulators according to related laws and rules.

Perpetrators of online sale of illegal lotteries, or those who intercepted money from lottery sale or gambled online, will be prosecuted.

According to Wang Xuehong, head of the research institute of lottery under the Beijing University, there are honesty and security problems in the area of online lottery sale. It is difficult for buyers to tell legal websites from illegal ones.

"It's hard to say whether a website will buy lottery tickets for the buyers after it receives money from them," Wang said, adding that it was difficult to supervise websites behavior.

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