| Gambling is defined as plays aimed at hitting jackpots. According to common international categorization, commercial gaming basically includes three sub-types: lotteries, horse racing, and casinos. Since gambling has both negative and positive impacts on society, drawing on experiences of prior years, few countries and regions adhere to a policy that either filly legalizes or totally prohibits it. In most cases, the authorities adopt a policy that legalizes only selected gambling activities, and the legalization process has usually followed the following order: lotteries---horse racing?casinos. The reason for partially legalizing gambling is that there is a strong demand of it from individuals, social groups, as well as the society. Along with the socioeconomic, technological, and cultural development and the increasing ability of government control, the positive impacts of gambling have received rational scrutiny from the society. Government control and the moral power play an important role in regulating the development of commercial gaming. Currently, China only allows the running of lottery and restricts horse racing to sports event. Casino operations have been strictly forbidden. Though the appearance of lottery has contributed to China抯 economic development and public welfare, due to the lack of regulations, it appears that there are a number of problems need to be solved immediately. It is imperative that we must learn from experiences of managing commercial gaming in Hong Kong, Macao and foreign countries, and look for a proper road of development for China commercial gaming. In order to achieve further development of lotteries in China, the Chinese government should adopt new policy options and positions in the areas of administrative system, market structure, marketing methods, and fund management of the lottery. In the current stage, the Chinese government should adopt a selective policy that will actively promote lotteries, pay adequate attention to the internet gambling, regulate horse racing experiment, and continue to prohibit casino operations in China. |
