Chinese horse race lottery planned

CHINA – As reported by the People's Daily: "A pilot horse race lottery might be launched before 2008 in China with Wuhan as one of the candidate cities, according to a report by China News Service.

"Related government departments have put horse race lotteries on the agenda, Liu Zhiren, a counsellor of the State Council, revealed at the International Horse Race Festival in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province.

"Liu indicated that a joint proposal had been made by the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province and several other member political advisers to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on issuing horse race lotteries.

"…As a new type of sport lottery, horse racing is said to have great potential to raise money for the sports industry in China. The money raised could be used to breed fine varieties of horses, which is essential to improving China's overall level of horsemanship competition…"