Young Chinese people rush to buy lottery tickets

A lottery ticket booth in Tianjin city

The world’s second-largest economy is recovering from three years of border closures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. The economic growth rate in the first quarter of the year was 4.5%. However, April data showed that growth momentum in China weakened and youth unemployment rose to a record 20.4%, Reuters reported on May 24.

National lottery ticket sales in April rose 62 percent year-on-year to 50.33 billion yuan ($7.28 billion), the highest April sales in 10 years for China's lottery industry.

Sales in the first four months of the year also brought in 175.15 billion yuan for the lottery industry, up 49.3 percent from the same period last year, according to data from China's Ministry of Finance .

"Being paid 1 million yuan is not as good as winning that much money," Reuters quoted Freddie Xiao, a 28-year-old employee at an internet company in Beijing. Xiao said she recently started buying lottery tickets because she was worried about being suddenly unemployed. She hoped that luck could provide a way out of her current situation.

Some economists believe that the trend of economic instability may be linked to lottery industry revenue.

"Many people, especially young people, hope to get rich overnight with a small amount of money," said economist Yi Xianrong, who works at Qingdao University in China's Shandong province.

Last week, a street vendor in Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province celebrated winning a 26 million yuan lottery jackpot by smashing his stall. The scene was filmed by passersby and posted online, attracting discussion among netizens.

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