In China, people have experienced rapid wealth creation and, in turn, there is a demand for gambling opportunities.

China's first accession to the World Cup also draws the estimated 80 million China soccer fans and a large percentage of the 1.3 billion population to the game. As a result the China government took its first step toward legal gambling by launching a soccer lottery to combat illegal betting.

The launch of the soccer pool lottery system last year was marked as the first step towards the regulation of gambling in China. According to the government's lottery research centre, the market for lotteries in China will reach 84 billion Yuan by 2010, almost 5 times that of last year's turnover. Lottery shops are distributed all over Shenzhen and other major cities and the soccer lottery has so far produced over 40 millionaires.