Near 50pct in China poll say lottery an investment: report

Jul 18, 2016 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck  

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A survey of Chinese blue-collar workers born from 1990 onwards suggests that nearly half of respondents regard spending money on the country’s official lottery products as an “investment”, but fewer than one in five were willing to spend money on what was referred to as “self improvement”.

A report on the survey was carried on the English-language website of China News Service, an official Chinese news agency.

The study is said to have investigated attitudes toward personal finance among 5,110 blue-collar workers aged from 15 to 25, in 31 cities across the country.

It reportedly found that over half of respondents think personal financing is an act reserved for the rich.

The study was carried out by several parties, including what the report referred to as the “Business School of Ant Financial”.  Ant Financial is the popular name for Zhejiang Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group, which operates the Alipay digital payments system in China.

The other parties to the survey were Tsinghua Media Survey Lab and what the report referred to simply as “a think tank”.

Chinese businessman Jack Ma owns – alongside connected parties – a total of 86.7 percent of Ant Financial.

Ant Financial in turn owns 40 percent of Ali Fortune, a vehicle that is to be used to take control of AGTech Holdings Ltd, a Hong Kong-listed supplier of equipment, software and services to mainland China’s regulated lottery market.

The purpose of the acquisition is so that the AGTech group will be authorised by Alibaba group subsidiary Taobao (China) Software Co Ltd to operate a “lottery channel” on the Taobao platform, China’s largest online shopping portal.

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