The mahjong page sets out what Chinese law treats as gambling and what it does to you. The blind box page records that an operator may not run gambling or disguised gambling under another name. The drinking-age answer even quotes a statute that lists 彩票, lottery tickets, alongside tobacco and alcohol as things that may not be sold to minors.
Between them the site describes the prohibition three times and never names the exception. There is one, it is narrow, and it is written down.
Two, by state licence, and nothing else#
The instrument is the 彩票管理条例 (cǎipiào guǎnlǐ tiáolì, Regulations on the Administration of Lotteries), issued as State Council Order No. 554 on 4 May 2009 and in force since 1 July 2009. Article 3 is three sentences and it settles the whole question:
国务院特许发行福利彩票、体育彩票。未经国务院特许，禁止发行其他彩票。禁止在中华人民共和国境内发行、销售境外彩票。
The State Council licenses the issue of the welfare lottery and the sports lottery. Without that licence, issuing any other lottery is forbidden. Issuing or selling a foreign lottery inside the People's Republic of China is forbidden.
That third sentence is the one visitors trip over. It is not merely that foreign lotteries are unavailable in China; selling one there is prohibited by name.
The two are run by different arms of government. Article 5 puts the welfare lottery under the civil affairs department and the sports lottery under the sports administration — two ministries, two products, one licence each.
Since 2018, the internet is not a sales channel#
The regulation has implementing rules, and those were amended by a decision of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the General Administration of Sport, issued as Ministry of Finance Order No. 96 and in force from 1 October 2018.
The amendment added a fifth item to the list of what counts as 非法彩票, illegal lottery:
（五）擅自利用互联网销售的福利彩票、体育彩票
Welfare or sports lottery tickets sold over the internet without authorisation. The licensed products, sold through an unlicensed channel, become illegal lottery themselves. A Chinese lottery ticket bought from a website or an app is not a shortcut to the legal thing; it is the illegal thing.
Sixty natural days, and then it is gone#
How the money comes back, and to whom it does not#
Article 26 is short and unusually prescriptive about the form of payment:
彩票中奖奖金应当以人民币现金或者现金支票形式一次性兑付。不得向未成年人兑奖。
Prizes are paid in renminbi cash or by cash cheque, in a single settlement. No instalments, no vouchers, no goods in lieu.
And the second sentence is a separate minors rule from the one about selling. Article 18 lists four things a lottery agency, outlet or agent may not do:
（一）进行虚假性、误导性宣传；（二）以诋毁同业者等手段进行不正当竞争；（三）向未成年人销售彩票；（四）以赊销或者信用方式销售彩票。
False or misleading promotion, unfair competition by disparaging competitors, selling to minors, and selling on credit or deferred payment terms. Article 26 then bars paying out to a minor, which is a different act by a different person at a different counter. The regulation closes both doors rather than assuming one covers the other.
The tax threshold, and what counts as one win#
The tax treatment was restated recently. Announcement No. 12 of 2024, issued jointly by the Ministry of Finance, the State Taxation Administration, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the General Administration of Sport, is dated 15 August 2024 and has applied since 1 September 2024.
| The rule | What it says |
|---|---|
| Category | Winnings are 偶然所得, incidental income |
| Exemption | A single win of 10,000 yuan or less is provisionally exempt |
| One win, computer lottery | All prizes won by one person in one draw of one game |
| One win, scratch ticket | The prizes on one ticket |
That definition is doing real work. On a computer-drawn game everything you win in a single draw is aggregated into one figure and measured against the threshold; on a scratch card each ticket stands alone. The same total money can fall on either side of ten thousand yuan depending on which product produced it.
The announcement also fixes two operational thresholds: above 3,000 yuan, the winner's real-name details and the payout are recorded; and the lottery agency withholds tax, filing an exemption return for wins above 3,000 and up to 10,000 yuan, and a tax return for wins above 10,000.
In practice#
- The two names are the test. 福利彩票 (fúlì cǎipiào, welfare lottery) and 体育彩票 (tǐyù cǎipiào, sports lottery). Anything else offered to you in China is outside Article 3.
- Buy at a counter, not on a screen. An unauthorised internet sale of either licensed product has been illegal lottery since 1 October 2018.
- The ticket is the claim, and it has a clock on it. Sixty natural days from the draw, then the prize is deemed abandoned.
- Carry identity if you might win. The rules of individual games can require it at the counter, and above 3,000 yuan the payout is recorded against a real name.
- Ten thousand yuan is the line. At or below it a win is provisionally exempt from personal income tax; above it, tax is withheld at payout.
- This is not a route around the gambling rules. What Chinese law treats as gambling, and the article that does it, is unchanged by the existence of two licensed lotteries.
- Hong Kong and Macau license gaming under their own law entirely, so none of the above describes a ticket, a bet or a prize there.
Checked for newer, and what I could not read#
Articles 3, 18, 25 and 26 were read on the State Council Gazette and cross-checked character for character against the Beijing municipal sports bureau's republication of the same regulation. The two agree exactly on all four. Article 5, which assigns the two lotteries to their departments, was read on the Gazette only and is not part of that cross-check. The 2018 amendment and the 2024 tax announcement were both read on the State Council's policy database.
I checked whether Order No. 554 itself has been amended and found no amendment to the regulation: what changed in 2018 was its implementing rules, by Ministry of Finance Order No. 96, and this page says so rather than attributing the internet clause to the regulation.
Two things this page does not attempt. It gives no prize odds, jackpot figures or sales totals, because those change constantly and none of the figures circulating for them came from a source I could verify. And it says nothing about how any individual game works, because the regulation governs the framework and leaves the rules of each product to the issuing agency.
Frequently asked questions#
Is gambling legal in China?#
Only in the narrow form of two state-licensed lotteries. Article 3 of the Regulations on the Administration of Lotteries licenses the welfare lottery and the sports lottery and forbids issuing any other lottery, or issuing or selling a foreign lottery inside China. Everything else is dealt with under the gambling provisions of public security law.
Can foreigners buy lottery tickets in China?#
The regulation restricts sales by age rather than by nationality: it bars selling to minors and bars paying prizes to minors, and says nothing about a buyer's passport. What it does require is identity documents at the counter where a game's own rules call for them, and a real-name record for any payout above 3,000 yuan.
How long do you have to claim a Chinese lottery prize?#
Sixty natural days from the date of the draw, claimed in person at a designated place with the winning ticket. Article 25 provides that failing to claim in time is deemed abandonment of the prize, so the deadline operates automatically rather than as something to appeal.
Is a Chinese lottery win taxed?#
A single win of 10,000 yuan or less is provisionally exempt from personal income tax. Above that, tax is withheld by the lottery agency at payout. Winnings are treated as incidental income, and a 2024 announcement by four departments defines what counts as a single win differently for computer-drawn games and scratch tickets.
Can I buy Chinese lottery tickets online?#
No. Since 1 October 2018 the implementing rules have listed welfare or sports lottery tickets sold over the internet without authorisation as illegal lottery, putting them in the same category as unlicensed and foreign lotteries.
Which two lotteries does China license?#
The welfare lottery, administered by the civil affairs department, and the sports lottery, administered by the sports administration. Article 5 of the regulation assigns them to those two arms of government separately, which is why they are two products rather than two brands of one.