Scratch card shortages have made local headlines as lottery stores across the country ran out of stock for days at a time.
Fuelling the scratch card boom are young people, who have embraced what is often seen as an older person’s game. Winning probabilities and payouts depend on the type of scratch card. In one example, a 30-yuan scratch card leaves players empty-handed 64 per cent of the time, breaking even 25 per cent of the time, winning amounts from 50 yuan to 10,000 yuan with exponentially decreasing odds – and with a one in five million shot of walking home with the top prize of one million yuan.
Almost 85 per cent of lottery players are 18 to 34 years old, and over 60 per cent have at least an undergraduate degree, according to an October 2023 report by Chinese market research institute Mob. Despite making net losses on scratch cards, he told ST the appeal of the game lies in the thrill and anticipation of winning. “You’ll never know, the next card you scratch could win you 100,000 yuan.”Dr Dan Wang, chief economist at Hang Seng Bank in Shanghai, said: “The lottery is a form of cheap entertainment which satisfies the needs of stressed-out young people in China.”