Internet lottery sales were stopped by the Ministry of Finance and other eight departments last year. How the rectification is going and when to restart Internet lottery sales have always been concerned by the market. At the same time, after the internet lottery was stopped, there were still some hot sales of goods with the nature of gambling on the Internet. For example, some websites launched "one yuan to buy" and "one yuan to win the treasure". Are these behaviors legal or not? What are the potential risks? Recently, our reporter conducted an investigation on the chaos, causes, risks and regulatory issues of Internet lottery, and welcomed lottery participants to participate in the discussion.
— — Editor
Online sales are banned, and lottery players are troubled.
"You can sell train tickets and movie tickets online. Why can’t you sell lottery tickets?"
"The Internet has penetrated into every corner of social life, and many industries are actively promoting it ‘ Internet plus & rsquo; Why can’t lottery sales add the Internet? " Many lottery players expressed doubts and incomprehension when it was mentioned that lottery tickets were not allowed to be sold online.
In April 2015, the Ministry of Finance and other eight departments jointly issued an announcement, which clearly defined the use of the Internet to sell lottery tickets, and resolutely stopped and severely investigated all kinds of unauthorized use of the Internet to sell lottery tickets. Up to now, the Internet lottery has been "stopped" for more than a year.
Ms. Wang, a marketer of an insurance company in Shanghai, is an "online shopper". Almost everything she eats at home is scoured online. She said that before shopping on Taobao, some merchants would send one or two lottery tickets to their old customers, wishing them a good win. Although a lottery ticket won 2 yuan, the merchants’ small thoughts are still quite warm.
In Wan Hui Shopping Mall near Chaoyang Road, there is a lottery sales point. After shopping in the mall, many residents will also take out some change to buy some lottery tickets. "Buying lottery tickets can not only entertain ourselves, but also contribute to the welfare cause. We retired old buddies come here every now and then. However, if it is windy and rainy, it will be difficult for old arms and legs to go out. It will be more convenient if you can buy lottery tickets online or on your mobile phone. " An old man who is filling in the lottery number told reporters.
Internet lottery sales stopped, and those who were most affected were the old lottery players. Mr. Zhang works as a business manager in a manufacturing enterprise in Northeast China and has been paying attention to lottery tickets for more than 10 years. He introduced that many old lottery players have their own research methods for choosing lottery numbers, and once this number is selected, they will often pursue it for many times. He travels all the year round, and he used to be able to buy lottery tickets on the Internet. Now he has to look for lottery stations everywhere in a strange city, and sometimes he is worried about missing the betting time, so he has to ask his family to remember to buy them. I put a lot of extra care into myself, but I have less fun buying lottery tickets. After a long time, family members also feel troublesome and even cause family conflicts. He told reporters: "I don’t understand. You can sell train tickets and movie tickets online. Why can’t you sell lottery tickets?"
During the two sessions this year, some deputies suggested that sports lottery tickets and welfare lottery tickets approved by the government have become a part of people’s lives. Stopping the sale of lottery tickets on the Internet for a long time has not only brought a lot of inconvenience, but also encouraged underground lottery tickets, providing a living space for illegal interest channels.
There are many scams and the risks are difficult to control.
There are illegal phenomena such as "stealing and selling" and "stealing lottery tickets", and some lottery tickets are occupied and intercepted.
In March and April of this year, some lottery players found that they could buy sports lottery and lottery tickets through some websites or mobile apps. This phenomenon has also attracted great attention from relevant departments. On May 24th, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued a notice, reiterating once again the strict investigation of online companies and other units and individuals using the Internet to sell lottery tickets without authorization.
Then, why are the relevant departments not soft on Internet lottery sales? Can regular lottery tickets be sold online?
"The way of selling lottery tickets on the Internet is virtual and networked, with high security risks and heavy social responsibilities. Countries all over the world are generally cautiously promoting and strictly supervising this." According to the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Finance, lottery issuance is an important part of lottery supervision. China’s lottery issuance methods include physical store sales, telephone sales, Internet sales, self-service terminal sales, etc. The Ministry of Finance actively supports lottery institutions to continuously strengthen the construction of lottery channels, including exploring the use of Internet sales methods.
According to the regulations, China Welfare Lottery Issuance Management Center and Sports Lottery Management Center of the State Sports General Administration, as lottery issuers, must be finally reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Finance before the specific implementation. So far, the Ministry of Finance has not approved any lottery agency to officially open the business of selling lottery tickets through the Internet.
Changing the sales method to sell lottery tickets online requires the approval of the Ministry of Finance, which is due to the consideration of the security of lottery funds and the control of transaction risks. Selling lottery tickets online without authorization may lead to unimaginable risks.
For example, is the lottery ticket that consumers buy through websites or mobile apps a real and effective regular lottery ticket or a scam of phishing websites? Did the lottery money really enter the national lottery fund pool? If one link can’t be controlled, it will harm the interests of lottery players, cause losses to the country and seriously interfere with the healthy development of lottery.
In fact, in the past two years, there were indeed illegal phenomena such as "stealing" and "stealing lottery tickets", and some people were even listed as international "Hongtong" personnel. According to the investigation by the public security organs, from 2012 to 2014, Chen Mou, a Macao criminal suspect, collaborated with others to sell lottery tickets through the Internet without the authorization of the National Lottery Distribution Center. Among the sales betting orders it received, only 400 million yuan entered the lottery center system, and 100 million yuan was not issued through the lottery center system. The intercepted 100 million yuan lottery money is equivalent to "sitting in a private village". If someone wins the prize, they will win it privately, and the rest of the lottery money will be illegally appropriated by Chen Mou and others. According to the above criminal facts and conclusive evidence, the Guangzhou procuratorate approved the arrest of Chen Mou according to law. At the same time, Interpol China National Central Bureau issued a red notice to Chen Mou in time, and launched a global wanted notice. In November 2015, Chen Mou was forced to enter the country from Macau through Zhuhai Gongbei Port and surrendered himself to the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Bureau.
The person in charge said that the issuance and sale of lottery tickets is not only a simple entertainment activity of "seeing luck and taking chances", but also must highlight the public welfare characteristics and responsibility concept of national lottery tickets. The relevant departments will "open the door and block the back channels" and carry out a pilot project of selling lottery tickets on the Internet and mobile phone clients in a unified way to ensure that the lottery tickets sold on the Internet are stable, orderly, safe and controllable.
When online sales open, technology should be "cow"
A unified online lottery management system should be established for real-time monitoring.
Compared with traditional lottery sales methods, online lottery sales have the advantages of reducing distribution costs and improving operational efficiency, and social recognition is getting higher and higher. Statistics show that in 2014, national lottery sales reached 382.378 billion yuan, of which online sales reached 85 billion yuan, accounting for 22.2% of the total lottery sales. Although these online sales are not standardized, they account for more than 50% of the annual lottery sales increase. Many lottery players are concerned: When will online lottery sales be able to "open the gate"? What is the progress of related work?
The reporter learned from the relevant departments that there were some chaos in online lottery sales in the past, mainly because the technical means of monitoring were not enough, which led to mixed fish and dragons and difficult to control risks. The idea now is to lay a solid foundation first and do a good job in the construction of the internet sales lottery management system. Using the Internet to sell lottery tickets, it is necessary to conduct unified management and real-time monitoring through the Internet lottery sales management system established by lottery issuers.
At present, the construction of Internet lottery management system is in progress. On May 26th, the website of the Ministry of Finance published the Public Bidding Announcement on the overall marketing and promotion project of China Welfare Lottery Distribution Management Center by telephone and Internet. According to the announcement, the marketing planning of Internet sales welfare lottery and the output of related publicity materials will be completed by the end of October this year, in line with the subsequent listing and promotion of Internet sales welfare lottery. On July 4, the announcement of winning the bid for the overall marketing and promotion project of Internet sales welfare lottery was released, and People’s Daily won the bid of 5.18 million yuan.
After the system construction and other related work are completed, welfare lottery and sports lottery issuers will submit market analysis reports and technical feasibility analysis reports to the Ministry of Finance, as well as technical testing reports issued by third-party professional testing institutions, and then apply for approval according to the prescribed procedures before launching the trial of selling lottery tickets on the Internet and mobile phone clients. It may take some time for these programs to go down.
Some enterprises that want to try to sell lottery tickets online or on mobile phones believe that the progress of the Internet lottery system, what kind of enterprises can cooperate to sell lottery tickets, and what qualifications and conditions they need are the focus of social attention. Relevant departments should disclose relevant information to the public, clarify the industry access conditions and audit standards, let relevant enterprises prepare as soon as possible, participate in the competition openly and fairly, and promote the orderly development of Internet lottery sales.
■ Extended reading
What are the lottery funds in China?
According to China’s "Regulations on Lottery Management" and its implementation rules, relevant regulations of the Ministry of Finance, etc., the proportion of lottery funds is determined by the State Council, and the specific proportion of lottery bonuses, lottery issuance fees and lottery public welfare funds for each lottery variety is determined by the Ministry of Finance according to the decision of the State Council.
With the approval of the State Council, the Ministry of Finance can determine the proportion of funds for specific lottery games within the scope of the bonus ratio not exceeding 75%, according to the demand for lottery issuance and sales and the characteristics of different lottery varieties. The proportion of business expenses of lottery issuing institutions and lottery sales institutions shall be drawn up by lottery issuing and sales institutions according to the needs of lottery development, and shall be reported to the civil affairs department at the same level or the sports administrative department in consultation with the financial department at the same level for approval before implementation.
Lottery bonuses should be designed in a proportional way, that is, lottery bonuses should be extracted from lottery sales in a certain proportion. The proportion of lottery prizes should be within the maximum limit approved by the State Council and adhere to the principle of proportional reward. It is necessary to appropriately control the maximum prize amount of single-note lottery tickets, reasonably set the prize amount of lottery tickets, improve the winning surface of lottery tickets, and enhance the experience and entertainment of lottery purchase.
In terms of the proportion of lottery public welfare fund, the lottery issuing institution shall reasonably draw up the proportion of lottery public welfare fund in the rules of lottery games according to the demand situation of lottery tickets and the characteristics of lottery varieties, which shall not be less than 20%.
The proportion of lottery issuance fees should be reasonably drawn up according to the characteristics of lottery varieties, issuance scale and issuance methods.
Since January 1, 2016, the proportion of traditional and instant lottery issuance fees has remained unchanged at 15% for lottery varieties approved by the Ministry of Finance; Lotto, digital, video, Keno lottery payment ratio of more than 13%, will be adjusted to 13%; If it does not exceed 13%, the proportion of its issuance fee will remain unchanged temporarily; If the proportion of public welfare funds for quiz lottery games is less than 20%, the proportion of distribution fees will be reduced by 2 percentage points. The above-mentioned reduction in the distribution fee ratio of lottery games shall be used to increase the proportion of public welfare funds for corresponding lottery games, except that 1 percentage point of the reduction in the distribution fee of Chinese welfare lottery two-color ball games is transferred to the game adjustment fund for returning prizes.
(Wang Guan finishing)
How to supervise lottery abroad?
United States: In the United States, each state establishes its own lottery supervision and distribution institution according to the state constitution and lottery law. The highest supervision institution of lottery is the state lottery commission, and the lottery company is the direct management department of lottery in each state. Lottery tickets are sold through distributors. Lottery committees in most states are independent of the state government and are responsible for the interests of the people in the whole state. Generally speaking, the lottery committees in each state are mostly composed of elected members or governors and representatives of the people appointed by the state speaker, such as retired anti-drug police and retired certified public accountants. No salary is paid except for the reasonable expenses of performing duties, and the Committee itself does not receive any government funding. Internet lottery in the United States has experienced a process from prohibition to liberalization. At the end of 2011, the US Department of Justice changed the interpretation of online lottery sales, and completely loosened the Internet lottery. In 2012, Illinois became the first big state to offer online lottery tickets. At present, 12 big states have approved the expansion of lottery sales to the network field.
Britain: The British national lottery is the largest lottery in Britain, which is approved by the British Parliament to raise funds for public welfare undertakings such as art, sports and charity. In Britain, there are four institutions jointly responsible for the operation and management of the national lottery, namely, the British Ministry of Culture, Media and Sports, the National Lottery Commission, the operator company and the national lottery fund allocation agency. The National Lottery Committee is the main management organization of the national lottery in Britain. It is necessary to ensure the integrity of all aspects of the lottery industry, protect the interests of lottery players and increase the amount of lottery public welfare funds. Through open bidding, it will issue business licenses to the winning companies to be responsible for their operations and supervise the national lottery. The operator company is responsible for the operation and management of the national lottery, including the design, production and sales of lottery products, and provides services for lottery players and winners.
Singapore: Singapore implements a government franchise system for lottery tickets. In May, 1968, Singapore Lottery (Private) Co., Ltd. was established by the Lottery Authority under the Ministry of Finance of Singapore, with the purpose of cracking down on illegal betting activities by providing legal betting channels and benefiting the society with surplus income. The company implements a market-oriented operation mechanism in which the board of directors makes decisions, the management operates independently and is responsible for its own profits and losses. According to the regulations of the Singapore government, the company is required to pay gambling tax at 25% of the issuance income, and pay consumption tax at 7% of the issuance income after deducting the bonus. The annual net surplus income is turned over to the lottery management bureau for social welfare undertakings such as culture and sports.
(Wu Tao finishing)