Spending 100,000 Yuan on Lottery Tickets: Addicted to Scratch Cards and Unable to Break Free

Minors Spotted as "Little Lottery Fans" at Lottery Sales Outlets

Spending 100,000 yuan on lottery tickets, addicted to scratch cards and unable to break free... The issue of children buying lottery tickets has raised concerns among parents. Although the newly revised Regulations on the Protection of Minors in Beijing, implemented since June last year, stipulate that lottery sales outlets shall not be set up within a certain range around schools and kindergartens, no clear provisions have been made on the specific range. The reporter learned that, boosted by procuratorial public interest litigation, the specific range standard has now been released: 200 meters! Before the end of the month, more than 200 sports lottery and dual-machine sales outlets in violation of regulations around campuses will be rectified, and it is expected that all lottery sales outlets in violation of regulations in the city will be fully rectified by the end of the year.

Case

Child Spent 100,000 Yuan on Lottery Tickets

"100,000 yuan! Our child spent so much money on lottery tickets, and we parents didn't even know. How do you propose to handle this?" The father of a 17-year-old boy surnamed Chen anxiously reported to the Beijing Sports Lottery Management Center that Xiao Chen had become addicted to buying lottery tickets since the second half of last year, using money from his father's Alipay family account to purchase lottery tickets without authorization at a lottery outlet, spending a total of 100,000 yuan.

According to an investigation by the Lottery Management Center, Xiao Chen was buying football betting lottery tickets at 2 yuan each; he would buy hundreds or even thousands of yuan worth at a time, making many purchases and spending 100,000 yuan of the family's money. "Although Xiao Chen is only 17, he is 1.8 meters tall and weighs nearly 200 jin, so it is difficult to tell on site whether he is a minor."

The reporter learned that among the minors who go to lottery outlets to buy lottery tickets, most are 16 or 17 years old. If lottery outlets do not carefully check ID cards, it may be difficult to directly identify whether a purchaser is a minor.

A teenager who has bought lottery tickets many times said that he started playing scratch cards while wandering around a lottery outlet. At first he did not know that those under 18 could not buy them; he just wanted to try, and after winning a small prize he felt as if a pie had fallen from the sky and was quite happy. Later he became more and more deeply involved, lost all the money he had usually saved, but still wanted to buy, and now regrets it very much.

Parents Take 9-Year-Old Child to Buy Lottery Tickets and Scratch Prizes

Another common phenomenon is younger minors following their parents to buy lottery tickets. Nine-year-old Xiao Liu went with his father to a lottery outlet; the father paid for the lottery tickets but let Xiao Liu scratch the cards on site, and Xiao Liu was overjoyed. Being able to scratch the cards themselves makes many children feel it is "novel" and "fun," and some parents also approve, believing that "children have good luck."

"When children come into contact with lottery tickets too early and are influenced by what they see and hear, enjoying the thrill of gambling, they can easily develop a mentality of getting something for nothing and gambling, and gradually lose themselves." Parent Ms. Feng said that she would not take her middle-school daughter to buy lottery tickets, but she worries that the child might buy them secretly or go with classmates.

Because the above-mentioned outlets did not verify the identity information of lottery buyers, or because staff believed that the presence of a guardian was sufficient to hand lottery tickets to children, lottery tickets were sold to minors and prizes redeemed. After verifying the situation, the Lottery Management Center has now canceled the sports lottery agency qualification of the above-mentioned physical stores in accordance with the agency contract.

Analysis

Older Children Mostly Buy Instant Lottery Tickets Alone

"In law enforcement, we often advise parents who bring their children to buy lottery tickets that children are not yet mature physically or mentally and are prone to developing a gambling mentality, which is harmful to healthy growth. In our work we have found that more often it is 16- or 17-year-olds buying lottery tickets, and mostly instant lottery tickets, perhaps because they are afraid of being discovered by their parents when they get home." Staff of the Lottery Management Center introduced that for outlets found selling lottery tickets to minors and the large number of similar complaint cases received each year, the Management Center usually, depending on the severity of the circumstances, adopts administrative penalty measures such as suspending the outlet's sales for a period of time or canceling the outlet's lottery agency qualification.

However, in the view of Prosecutor Pang Tao, deputy director of the Seventh Procuratorial Department of the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate First Branch, who has long been engaged in the protection of minors, imposing administrative penalties on non-compliant outlets is not the ultimate goal. Society should pay more attention to the negative impact of lottery tickets on the healthy growth of minors reflected behind these cases.

Minors Buying Lottery Tickets Has Three Major Adverse Effects

Procuratorial authorities found through investigation that minors buying lottery tickets may have adverse effects in three aspects.

Economic Impact

Minors have no source of economic income, and buying large amounts of lottery tickets without authorization will bring economic pressure and risk to the family; from the perspective of civil law, whether parents can demand a refund of this money is also currently disputed.

Psychological Impact

This impact is more serious than the economic impact, mainly manifested in possibly inducing children to develop a gambling mentality, placing too much importance on money, relying on luck while neglecting the value of hard work, which is detrimental to forming a healthy outlook on money and values. Therefore, whether children buy lottery tickets alone or parents take their children to buy them, both are improper behaviors.

Social Impact

Minors are immature in mind and may misunderstand the nature and probability of lottery tickets. They are easily influenced by their surroundings and buy blindly, and lottery sales around campuses can also easily lead to comparisons and following the crowd among classmates.

Visit

Lottery Outlet Less Than 50 Meters from School Gate

"Too close! No need to use instruments to measure; it is obvious at a glance that children can conveniently buy lottery tickets as soon as they leave the school gate." At the gate of a primary school in Changping District, prosecutors conducting an on-site visit found that turning left out of the school gate and walking less than 50 meters led to a roadside lottery outlet. The lottery outlet was separated from the campus by only a wall.

Another lottery outlet in Changping was separated from a middle school gate by only a few parking spaces. The two were on the same side of the road and very close. "Some lottery outlets are almost right next to school gates. When children finish school, they can easily come into contact with lottery tickets. This is a public interest issue that urgently needs to be resolved."

Compared with the Regulations on the Administration of Lottery Tickets, which has been in effect for many years, the newly revised Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors places greater emphasis on scenario-based protection in the lottery issue, adjusting and regulating around minors and their various life scenarios, and is closer to children's daily study and life. For example, the issue of lottery sales regulation is placed in the chapter on "social protection" in the new "six protections" framework for minors established by the Law on the Protection of Minors. Article 59 stipulates that lottery sales outlets shall not be set up around schools and kindergartens, and it is prohibited to sell cigarettes, alcohol, or lottery tickets to minors or to pay lottery prizes to them.

The existence of lottery outlets around campuses is detrimental to the healthy growth of minors, harms the public interest of society, and also violates the relevant provisions of the Law on the Protection of Minors. Accordingly, the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate First Branch performed its public interest litigation procuratorial functions in accordance with the law, urging relevant administrative departments to perform their regulatory duties, purify the social environment around campuses, and give children a clear and bright space for growth.

In the public interest litigation investigation, the procuratorial authorities screened through a big data legal supervision model they developed and applied for identifying places around campuses unsuitable for minor activities, and conducted on-site investigation and verification. They found that there are a large number of lottery sales outlets around campuses in the city. After precisely locking onto the locations and securing evidence, the case-handling team formed a "Pre-litigation Procuratorial Recommendation Letter for Public Interest Litigation" and held pre-litigation consultations with the Lottery Management Center, upholding the legal supervision concept of win-win, multi-win, and shared win to jointly advance problem resolution.

Implementation

No Outlets Within 200 Meters Around Campuses

"During communication and consultation, we learned that the Lottery Management Center attaches great importance to the issue of selling lottery tickets to minors and handles complaints promptly. But law enforcement also encountered difficulties: exactly what distance around campuses should be prohibited for setting up lottery sales outlets? There is a lack of very clear provisions." Pang Tao introduced that the Law on the Protection of Minors does not make this clear, and most relevant normative documents have relatively low legal effect, many norms are not mandatory, and standards are inconsistent, or they refer to the standards for the distance for setting up cigarette and alcohol sales outlets. Many lottery outlets did not quite accept this and showed strong resistance.

The newly revised Regulations on the Protection of Minors in Beijing came into effect on June 1 last year. Article 29 stipulates that lottery sales outlets shall not be set up within a certain range around schools and kindergartens, and the specific range shall be determined and announced by municipal civil affairs, sports, and other departments. This provision goes a step further than the Law on the Protection of Minors by authorizing competent departments to study and formulate specific range standards. The case-handling team wrote the requirements of the new regulations into the procuratorial recommendation letter, and the Lottery Management Center quickly replied accepting them, stating that it would seriously study and implement the new regulations.

But a new problem soon emerged: how far exactly should the distance standard be set? 50 meters, 100 meters, 200 meters, or farther? When would the distance standard be introduced through consultation? When would the new regulations on the protection of minors truly take effect? Pang Tao believed that to achieve high-quality handling of public interest litigation cases, it is necessary to open up the "last mile." Therefore, the case-handling team intensively communicated and coordinated with the Lottery Management Center.

Through the linkage and close collaboration between the procuratorial authorities and administrative departments, the Lottery Management Center has now formulated a specific range standard—no lottery sales outlets may be set up within 200 meters around campuses—and has stipulated detailed measurement methods, truly putting the new regulations into effect and protecting the lawful rights and interests of minors in the capital to the greatest extent. Compared with the 50-meter and 100-meter range standards formulated by other provinces and cities, the 200-meter range standard better reflects the protection of minors.

Rectification

Non-compliant Lottery Sales Outlets Expected to Be Fully Rectified by Year-End

To advance the rectification of lottery sales outlets around campuses throughout the city, Prosecutor Pang Tao was invited to the Lottery Management Center to explain the new regulations to merchants. "In fact, cleaning up and rectifying non-compliant outlets is not a restriction on the development of the lottery industry; on the contrary, it is for healthy and sustainable development. After all, we are all doing this for the children! In addition, institutions such as change of circumstances in civil law can exempt everyone from liability for early termination of contracts, so there is no need to worry about breach of lease contracts caused by early termination and moving out."

At present, the cleanup and rectification work is proceeding in an orderly manner. Before the end of the month, more than 200 sports lottery and dual-machine sales outlets in violation of regulations around campuses will be rectified, and it is expected that all lottery sales outlets in violation of regulations in the city will be fully rectified by the end of the year. By then, both the incremental and existing lottery sales outlets around Beijing campuses will operate in compliance with regulations.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Zhuang Wei of the Beijing Municipal People's Procuratorate First Branch stated: "Keeping children away from the negative influence of lottery tickets, with public interest litigation procuratorial work promoting the purification of the social environment around campuses, is only one aspect. Joint efforts from all parties are also needed. For example, parents must also fulfill their guardianship duties and not take their children to buy lottery tickets or scratch cards. The procuratorial authorities will continue to promote the formation of synergy among the 'six protections' of family, school, society, internet, government, and justice, and persist in these efforts over time."