Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | February 2014 36 Windfall Potential China Mobile is joining the country’s lottery boom FEATURE H ong Kong-based lottery services provider China LotSynergy Holdings has signed an agreement with China’s state-owned China Mobile to assist with the development of a payment- based lottery platform. The platform will provide China Mobile’s world-leading base of 760 million subscribers with access to lottery betting via online, mobile, SMS and other media. Publicly traded China LotSynergy (1371.HK ) through its Beijing subsidiary will construct the system, develop the software and provide operational support and some sales and marketing. China’s lottery market is the second-largest in the world after the United States’ and is growing at rates that are likely to see it become the largest by 2015. Combined sales by the government’s Sports Lottery andWelfare Lottery rose 18.3% last year to RMB309.3 billion (US$51.1 billion), largely on the strength of new products— notably the promotion of quiz-style games—and an expanding number of outlets. Welfare Lottery sales amounted to 176.53 billion yuan in 2013, an increase of 16.9%. Sports Lottery sales rose 20.2% to 132.8 billion. For all its success, however, Beijing is reported to be concerned