China: Unemployment drives lottery games among young people – 08/16/2023 – Market

Worried about rising unemployment and pressure on the job market, young people in China are struggling to earn a living. To escape this tension, many turn to scratch card games, hoping to strike it rich overnight.

Scratch cards have become so popular that even digital influencers have jumped on the bandwagon.

Chen Ying, a 26-year-old young woman, spent 100,000 yuan (around R$68,000 at current exchange rates) on the game of chance to scratch the cards live and entertain her followers on her profile on the social network Douyin, the Chinese version from TikTok.

But the young woman’s goal is not to win, but to increase her number of followers. In six months, she went from a few hundred to 45,000 subscribers.

Lottery game sales reached 274 billion yuan (R$187 billion) in the first half of 2023 in China, up 50% year-on-year, which analysts attribute to the fragile economic situation.

“It’s not easy to earn money now. People with a college degree don’t easily find a job they like. It makes them want to suddenly become rich,” says Chen Ying.

The indicators of recent months do not generate optimism in the country, as the economy lacks dynamism and now faces the risk of deflation.

In this context, China announced this week that it will suspend the release of unemployment figures for the 16 to 24 age group, after this index reached a record in June (21.3%).

“In people’s subconscious, there is the idea that it is increasingly difficult to get rich thanks to work,” Huang Zhenxing, a professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, recently told Chinese media Caijing.

So the Chinese are “more inclined to try their luck at scratch cards to see if they can get rich overnight,” he added.

ephemeral pleasure

Many other digital influencers are looking to cash in on the success surrounding scratch card games on their social media.

On Douyin, videos tagged with the hashtag #Guaguale (the name of a famous scratch card brand) have garnered over 6.4 billion views.

Curtis Cheng, 25, told AFP that he is playing more and more. And he is not the only one: at noon and at night, the lottery near his house is crowded with young people.

“I like that feeling of trying your luck. If you don’t win, it’s not serious. It’s a way to spice up life,” he said, adding that it’s a way to break out of a rut. “Young people want a stroke of luck to improve their situation,” he said.

Erika Cui, who works in the technology sector, explains that scratch cards help her forget about her worries.

“The economy is not in a very good situation. In addition, the pressure at work and in everyday life is very strong. The mental health of many people is worrying”, he lamented.

For her, this popularity also comes from the desire to relieve the stress of work, studies and urban life.

“When you play, you forget about your life. That small ephemeral pleasure is more important than winning or not”, he declared.