China 3D Lottery

What 3D, Pailie 3 and Pailie 5 are

3D, Pailie 3 and Pailie 5 are China's daily digit games, the quick, cheap end of a lottery scene that also includes big twice- or thrice-weekly draws like Double Color Ball and Super Lotto. Instead of picking balls from a large field, you pick digits, and a draw happens every single evening of the year.

3D, written 福彩3D, is the Welfare Lottery's three-digit game. You pick three digits from 0 to 9, and the game draws a three-digit winning number every evening at 21:15¹. It has been running long enough that Shanghai marked its 20th anniversary in 2024 with a special prize promotion⁵.

Pailie 3, written 排列3, is the Sports Lottery's three-digit game. The play structure is almost the same as 3D: pick three digits, choose whether you want them in exact order or any order, and watch the draw. It draws daily at 21:25².

Pailie 5, written 排列5, is Pailie 3's bigger sibling on the Sports Lottery side. You pick five digits, and if all five match the drawn number in the exact order, you win a fixed CNY 100,000 per bet. It draws daily at 21:25, together with Pailie 3³.

One thing worth knowing before you buy: a ticket in any of these games is valid only for the draw it was bought for. There is no multi-draw carry-over as in some Western lotteries; each evening stands alone⁶.

Who runs each game: Welfare Lottery vs Sports Lottery

China has two state lottery organizations, and the split between them explains the duplication of 3D and Pailie 3.

The China Welfare Lottery (中国福利彩票), run by the China Welfare Lottery Issuance and Administration Center, raises funds for welfare programs. Its game lineup includes Double Color Ball, Kuaile 8, Qilecai, FC 3D and scratch cards, and it publishes draw videos for Double Color Ball, Happy 8, FC 3D and Seven Lottery⁷.

The China Sports Lottery (中国体育彩票), run by the Sports Lottery Administration Center of the General Administration of Sport, funds sports development. Pailie 3 and Pailie 5 are its daily number games, alongside Super Lotto, 7 Star and the football and basketball games. Its schedule, results and prize data are published by the Center itself⁷.

So 3D and Pailie 3 are essentially the same game issued by two different state bodies, each with its own ticket, its own draw machine and its own prize accounting. The practical difference for you is mostly the draw time, 21:15 versus 21:25, and which network of stores you buy from.

How the draws work

All three games draw daily, seven days a week, all year.

• 3D: every evening at 21:15¹
• Pailie 3: every evening at 21:25²
• Pailie 5: every evening at 21:25, same session as Pailie 3³

The draws are televised, and the Welfare Lottery publishes draw videos for FC 3D alongside its other games⁷. Winning numbers are posted the same evening on the official results pages: the Welfare Lottery's results are carried on zhongcai wang (zhcw.com), and the Sports Lottery's on lottery.gov.cn, the site run for the Sports Lottery Administration Center⁷.

Draw numbers are defined by the draw day and numbered by calendar year, so a ticket will show a period number (期号) that tells you exactly which evening's draw it belongs to. Because tickets are only valid for the draw they were bought for, checking that period number matters more here than in games with weekly draws.

Play types and how prizes are set

The three-digit games share a play structure with three prize tiers, and the names are worth learning because store staff and Chinese-language play slips use them.

Direct selection (直选, zhi xuan). You pick three digits and they must match the drawn number in the exact order. This pays CNY 1,040 per bet in both 3D and Pailie 3¹.

Group 3 (组三, zu san, "zuxuan 3"). You match the drawn digits in any order, in a draw where two of the three drawn digits are the same. This pays CNY 346 per bet¹.

Group 6 (组六, zu liu, "zuxuan 6"). You match the drawn digits in any order, in a draw where all three digits are different. This pays CNY 173 per bet¹.

The official worked examples make the group plays clear. For group 3, if you bet the digits 1 and 2, you win on any of the drawn numbers 112, 121, 122, 211, 212 or 221, and collect CNY 346. For group 6, if you bet 1, 2 and 3, you win on any of 123, 132, 213, 231, 312 or 321, and collect CNY 173¹.

Beyond the basic single bets, 3D offers several bet forms: direct selection single, direct selection multiple, group-3 single, group-6 single, group selection and a lucky number pick¹. Direct selection multiple lets you cover more than one digit in a position on one ticket; group selection covers the any-order plays; the lucky number pick is a convenience option. Pailie 3 mirrors the same tiers, with direct selection paying CNY 1,040, group 3 paying CNY 346 and group 6 paying CNY 173².

Pailie 5 is simpler: one play, match all five digits in order, win CNY 100,000³.

Special promotions. From time to time the issuers add temporary prize money on top. For the 20th anniversary of 3D in 2024, Shanghai ran a promotion from March 28, 2024 with CNY 27,000,000 in extra prize money spread over 40 draws. Each draw carried a CNY 500,000 special prize for the group-3 play, shared equally among that draw's group-3 winners, with a cap of CNY 346 per bet. If no group-3 winner came up in a draw, that special prize rolled into the next draw's pool⁵. Promotions like this are announced locally, so it is worth asking at the counter whether one is running.

Ticket prices and top prizes

Prizes in these games are fixed amounts per single bet, which is what makes them attractive to players who like knowing the payout in advance: no shared jackpots, no prize-pool swings.

Figures from the official game rules for 3D and Pailie 3¹, and Pailie 5³.

Single bets across China's draw lotteries are priced at CNY 2, the standard unit used in the Sports Lottery's own game rules⁸. Because prizes are fixed per bet, buying multiple bets or a multiple-selection ticket simply multiplies your coverage and your potential payout, up to the number of bets on the ticket.

The top regular prize in this family is Pailie 5's CNY 100,000 for a five-digit exact match³. The three-digit games top out at CNY 1,040 per bet on the direct play, though anniversary promotions have layered extra money on the group plays, as the 2024 Shanghai campaign did⁵.

Where to buy tickets

Tickets for all three games are sold only at physical lottery stations inside mainland China. There is no other legal channel, and the official position is stated plainly: lottery in China is generally sold through physical stores⁴.

A genuine station is easy to recognize. Sports Lottery stores carry clear signage and the China Sports Lottery logo, and display a China Sports Lottery Sales Agency Certificate issued by the lottery center and bearing its official seal⁴. Welfare Lottery stations work the same way on their side, with Welfare Lottery branding and their own authorization documents. Stations are everywhere in daily life, often small storefronts on ordinary streets; one example from official records is a Welfare Lottery sales outlet at No. 28 Nanshi West Road, Tiexi District, Shenyang, typical of the neighborhood-shop format⁹.

Inside, you fill out a play slip or ask the staff to enter your numbers. The terminal prints your ticket showing your digits, the play type, the bet count and the draw's period number. Keep that ticket: it is the only thing that can claim a prize.

The popular results site zhongcai wang (zhcw.com) is exactly that, a results and information site. It states on its own pages that it is not a ticket-purchasing platform and that players must buy tickets at offline lottery stations¹².

Claiming prizes and deadlines

The claim window for all three games is 60 natural days from the draw date, and you claim in person with the winning ticket at a designated location⁶. If the last day of the window falls on a public holiday or a market closure day, the deadline extends to the first working day after it¹⁴.

A few practical rules apply at the counter:

• Identification. When redeeming computer lottery prizes over CNY 3,000, the station registers the winner's real-name identity information and redemption details, and the winner is expected to cooperate¹⁵. Bring your ID document for anything above that threshold.
• Where to claim. Sports Lottery winning tickets are redeemable anywhere within the provincial-level administrative region where the ticket was purchased¹⁶. Small prizes are paid on the spot at the station; larger ones go to the lottery center's designated claim points.
• How prizes are paid. Lottery prizes are payable only in RMB, not in other currencies, not in kind, and not in installments¹⁷.
• Missed deadlines. Prizes not claimed within 60 days are treated as forfeited and go to the lottery public welfare fund¹⁸.

For these games specifically, a Pailie 5 win of CNY 100,000 or a 3D direct-selection win of CNY 1,040 are both claimed the same way: ticket in hand, within the window, at a designated point in the province where you bought it.

Online sales and apps: what is and is not official

This is the one area where a clear line matters, because fake lottery apps are a real problem in China.

The state has never approved any institution or individual to sell lottery over the internet. Offline lottery stations are the only legal purchase channel, and this has been stated repeatedly by the authorities¹⁰. The China Sports Lottery Administration Center has never authorized any website, app, mini program, social software or other online form to sell sports lottery tickets, and has never cooperated with any unit or individual on internet sales¹¹. The official Sports Lottery platforms, including the WeChat public account, the app and the mini programs, do not offer any sales function¹⁹.

That means every site or app that claims to accept bets on 3D, Pailie 3, Pailie 5 or any other Chinese lottery is operating illegally. The authorities' own warning is blunt: lottery tickets bought online are very likely connected to illegal lottery, private lottery, illegal gambling or fraud, and buying them can make the buyer a participant in criminal activity¹¹. If you are in China and see an app offering these games, it is not an official channel in disguise; there is no official channel.

The same logic runs the other direction for players outside the country. These games are sold only at physical stations in mainland China, and the issuance or sale of foreign lotteries inside China is prohibited, so there is no legitimate way to play 3D, Pailie 3 or Pailie 5 from abroad¹⁸. Visitors and residents in mainland China can buy tickets at any station on the same terms as anyone else; the games are not restricted by nationality.

For more on the wider scene, see the China lottery page, or the overview of gambling in China.