Kuai 3 Lottery

What Kuai 3 is

Kuai 3, written 快3 and meaning "Fast Three," is a high-frequency lottery game run by the China Welfare Lottery system. In Jiangsu, the version documented in most detail, it is organized by the China Welfare Lottery Issuance and Administration Center and sold across the province by the Jiangsu Welfare Lottery sales institution¹. It belongs to the same family of quick, frequent games as Guangdong's Kuai Le Cai, which also runs on short draw cycles³.

The game itself is simple. Each draw produces three numbers, and each number is one of the six digits from 1 to 6, exactly like rolling three six-sided dice. A bet is one combination of three numbers, and each combination costs CNY 2². You are not betting against a dealer or other players; you are buying a lottery ticket on a fixed-payout game, and the prize you get depends only on which bet type you chose and what numbers come up.

What makes Kuai 3 distinctive is the pace. The draw is electronic: a dedicated machine, currently a random number generator, produces the three winning numbers, and the draw itself takes about one minute¹. Sales for each round originally lasted 10 minutes¹, but in Jiangsu this was adjusted in February 2019 to 20 minutes per round, with sales starting at 8:30 in the morning and 41 draws across the day¹. Results are broadcast live at every Kuai 3 sales point, so you can stand at the counter and watch the numbers appear².

Of the money spent on tickets, 59 percent of total sales goes to prizes, split as 58 percent for current prizes and 1 percent to a prize adjustment fund, 13 percent covers issuance expenses, and 28 percent goes to the public welfare fund that finances welfare programs¹. That 59 percent prize share is the number to keep in mind when you think about value, and we return to it under odds below.

Bet types and payouts

Kuai 3 offers six bet types, based on how the three drawn numbers combine¹. All prizes are fixed amounts per winning bet rather than a shared jackpot, so you know exactly what a win pays before you buy¹.

• Sum (和值). You bet on the total of the three numbers, from 4 to 17 (3 and 18 are covered by the same-number bets). The payout depends on how likely that total is. Middle totals are common and pay less; extreme totals are rare and pay more. Documented fixed prizes include CNY 10 for a winning bet on sum 12, CNY 12 for sum 13, and CNY 25 for sum 15¹. The rarest sums at each end pay the most.
• Three Same Numbers (三同号). You bet that all three numbers will be the same, such as 2-2-2 or 6-6-6. This is the hardest outcome to hit and carries the largest fixed payout in the game.
• Two Same Numbers (二同号). You bet that exactly two of the three numbers match, a pair plus one different number.
• Three Different Numbers (三不同号). You bet that all three numbers are different from each other, such as 2-4-6.
• Two Different Numbers (二不同号). You bet that two specified different numbers both appear among the three drawn.
• Three Consecutive Numbers Pass-Through (三连号通选). You bet that the three numbers form a run, such as 3-4-5, in any order¹.

Each bet costs CNY 2, and you can add a multiplier of 2 to 99 times, which multiplies both your stake and your prize¹. A single ticket cannot carry more than CNY 20,000 in total stakes, which is the practical ceiling for one purchase¹.

For comparison with other fixed-prize lottery games in China, Guangdong's Kuai Le Cai pays a fixed CNY 28 per single winning bet on its xuan2 (choose 2) play style and CNY 12 on xuan3, with single and multiple bets allowed and consecutive betting on up to 12 draws in a row³. The principle is the same as Kuai 3: fixed prizes, known in advance, no jackpot pooling.

Where Kuai 3 is played: land-based and online

Kuai 3 is a land-based, counter-purchased game. You buy it at official China Welfare Lottery stations in the provinces that offer it, and the Jiangsu version is the one with published rules¹. The draw results are shown live at the sales points themselves, so the whole game happens at the counter².

Online is a different matter, and the answer is short: there is no legal way to buy Kuai 3 tickets over the internet in mainland China. Even the official lottery information sites state plainly that they are not ticket-purchasing platforms and that tickets must be bought at offline lottery stations⁴. The state sports administration's guidance is that unauthorized internet lottery sales are firmly prohibited⁶, and official consumer guidance warns that lottery tickets bought online are likely connected to illegal lottery, private lottery, illegal gambling or fraud, and may make the buyer a participant in criminal activity⁷.

So any website or app offering "Kuai 3" betting to players in mainland China is operating outside the state system. If you want to play, the only route is a physical welfare lottery station in a province running the game.

Kuai 3 in China: the legal position

Kuai 3 itself is a legal, state-run game. Lottery in China is a state-licensed business, and no unit or individual may issue or sell lottery tickets without state approval⁸. The Regulations on the Administration of Lotteries also prohibit issuing any other lottery without a State Council franchise and prohibit issuing or selling foreign lotteries within China⁹. In practice this means the only lottery products you can legally buy in mainland China are the official welfare and sports lottery games, of which Kuai 3 is one where offered.

The one practical restriction worth repeating, because it is the one people trip over: buying tickets online is not permitted, and doing so through unofficial sites carries real risk⁶. Anyone in mainland China, whether a citizen, resident or visitor, buys at a counter or not at all. For the wider picture, see gambling in China and the China lottery.

Kuai 3 vs other dice games: how it differs

Because Kuai 3 draws three numbers from 1 to 6, it looks like a dice game, and the family resemblance is real. Sic Bo, played in casinos across Asia, is an ancient Chinese dice game played with three physical dice, and players bet on the outcome of each roll¹⁰. Chuck-a-luck, an old carnival relative, is also played with three dice¹¹. Even Bầu Cua Tôm Cá, the Vietnamese festival game, uses three standard six-sided dice numbered 1 to 6, with players betting on six symbols¹².

The differences matter more than the resemblance:

• Lottery versus table game. In Sic Bo you place chips on a table and the house pays you; in Kuai 3 you buy a printed ticket from a lottery terminal and the prize is a fixed lottery payout¹.
• Physical dice versus electronic draw. Sic Bo and Bầu Cua use real dice shaken in a cup or machine; Kuai 3 uses a random number generator, with each draw taking about a minute¹.
• Payout structure. Sic Bo payouts are odds-based, for example a single-number bet that appears on all three dice pays 3:1, sometimes 12:1¹³. Bầu Cua pays 1× your bet if your symbol appears on one die, 2× on two dice and 3× on all three, with some house rules paying 5 to 10× on a triple¹². Kuai 3 pays fixed yuan amounts per winning bet, set in the game rules¹.
• Who runs it. Sic Bo is run by casinos; Kuai 3 is run by the state welfare lottery system, with part of sales going to a public welfare fund¹.

If you enjoy the three-dice format, the casino versions offer faster action and odds-style payouts, while Kuai 3 offers small fixed prizes at a lottery counter. Our page on Chinese dice games and fan-tan covers the traditional side of the family.

Odds and house edge in plain terms

The clearest way to see the value of Kuai 3 is the prize share: 59 percent of sales goes to prizes¹. That means the game keeps roughly 41 percent of all money wagered, which is typical for lottery products. For context, independent guides put the house advantage for lottery at around 50 percent¹⁴, and Japanese lottery at about 55 percent¹⁶. A research paper on Chinese flower lottery games measured a house edge of 16.6 percent on a 30-to-1 bet¹⁷. So Kuai 3's roughly 41 percent take sits in the normal lottery range: far worse for the player than table games, but in line with other lottery products.

Within the game, the odds of each bet follow the dice math. There are 216 possible combinations of three numbers from 1 to 6. Middle sums such as 10 or 11 come up often, which is why a winning Sum bet on 12 pays only CNY 10 and on 13 pays CNY 12, while the rarer sum 15 pays CNY 25¹. A specific triple, such as 6-6-6, is one combination out of 216, which is why Three Same Numbers pays the most. The fixed payouts are scaled to how often each outcome lands, but they are scaled to return less than players stake in total, which is where the 41 percent goes.

Compared with other fast games, Kuai 3 is slower than casino Keno but much faster than daily draw games.

Practical tips for players

If you are buying a Kuai 3 ticket for the first time, here is what to know:

• Bring cash and expect small stakes. A single bet is CNY 2, cheap even by lottery standards; for comparison, the minimum bet on a racing Quaddie in Australia is $0.50 and Japan's motorboat racing takes 100 yen bets²¹. Multipliers from 2 to 99 times let you scale up, capped at CNY 20,000 per ticket¹.
• Watch the clock. Each sales round in Jiangsu lasts 20 minutes and the draw takes about a minute, so if you want to see the result, buy near the start of a round and stay at the counter, where results are broadcast live¹.
• Know your payout before you buy. Prizes are fixed, so a Sum bet on 15 pays CNY 25 per winning bet no matter how many people win¹. There is no jackpot pooling and no rollover, unlike parimutuel games where the jackpot depends on sales and is divided among winners²³.
• Tickets are for the current draw only. As with other Chinese draw games, where a Pailie 3 ticket is valid only for the draw it was bought for¹⁹, do not expect a Kuai 3 ticket to carry over to a later round.
• Buy only at official stations. The welfare lottery counter is the only legal sales channel; online purchase is prohibited and unofficial sites carry fraud and criminal-liability risk⁶.
• Treat it as entertainment, not income. With roughly 41 percent of stakes not returned as prizes, the game is priced for fun over the long run¹. Set a budget per session, since 41 draws a day make it easy to keep buying¹.