Chinese scholars are discussing the sensitive issue of legalizing games of chance on the continent as a way to prevent an estimated 600 billion yuan (HK$565 billion) a year in casinos and horse racing from leaking from Macau and Hong Kong.

Paradoxically, concerns about the negative aspects of gambling are also leading scholars to set up free nationwide hotlines for problem gamblers, a move that highlights official awareness of the depth of interest in games of good fortune. Discussions on the problems and possibilities of gambling have been taking place two years ago with the support of the Chinese Lottery Research Center (CCLS) at Beijing University, a government-approved organization established to bring together academics from different disciplines to focus on gambling-related policies and issues.

The center sponsored China's first international gambling conferences in Beijing and Macau last week. CCLS executive director Wang Xuehong said in an interview that psychologists are arranging to train hotline staff for troubleshooters because of a series of reports filed at the center and letters about families who have become homeless due to divorce, suicide and excessive gambling by addicted gamblers.

Wang estimated that underground casinos on the mainland earn 10 times more per year than the 40 billion yuan they collected from the government lottery.

Wang Zhengxian, a lottery expert at Beijing University, also attended the meeting, where he was quoted by the official media as saying that every year, mainlanders gamble nearly 600 billion yuan on overseas casinos and horse races. He urged the authorities to curb underground gambling and develop a sound and well-managed lottery industry as a "catalyst" for national economic growth.

He suggested that the government test casino operations in some areas and eventually lift the nationwide gambling ban.

Jia Kang, director of the Finance Science Research Institute with the Ministry of Finance, said authorities should explore the relationship between the lottery industry and the country's social and economic development.

Increasingly free to travel, mainlanders are fuelling the boom in the casino industry in Macau and elsewhere. Jia urged the government to explore how to further regulate and promote lottery activity on the mainland.

China first allowed civil affairs ministries at different levels of government to sell ``welfare lottery'' tickets 17 years ago, then seven years later allowed sports ministries to set up ``sports lotteries'' in which people can win prizes by picking the winners of professional football matches.

The two lottery systems are now bitter rivals as ticket proceeds largely stay with the respective ministries and fund much of their budgets.

Despite a series of lottery scandals, Wang Xuehong said education ministries and other government departments also want to set up their own lotteries to generate funds. But Wang expects the next phase of liberalisation to involve horse betting. More than 12 tracks have been set up around the country and a thoroughbred breeding industry has already taken hold. Thinly-disguised wagering has started, but the Beijing Jockey Club recently halted races because of a police investigation.

Legalisation of casinos will take longer because, as with the lotteries, almost every province and city will want to have their own because of the revenue potential, Wang said. 카지노사이트 순위

When the Communist Party took over the country in 1949, gambling was to be eliminated as a social vice. Now, like capitalism itself, it is back in full force.

Many poor people, especially migrant workers, often buy lottery tickets or visit illegal casinos.

Better-off players visit Macau's casinos but some also spend more than they can afford.

Wang said China needs a network of treatment centres to offer direct longer-term help to problem gamblers. Beijing is gradually moving forward with liberalisation of betting, seeing it as an acceptable diversion whose prohibition only drives gamblers underground or overseas.

Wang said CCLS intends to develop a gaming management MBA program to assist in the industry's professionalisation.

Las Vegas Sands Corp, which owns Nevada's Venetian Casino Resort and the Sands Macao Casino in Macau, has raised the price of its proposed initial public offering to US$24-$26 (HK$187-$202) per share from US$20-$22 each. The company could raise as much as US$619 million. It said it will likely use proceeds from the IPO to fund development projects, including projects in Macau and the United Kingdom.