Scratch Cards in China

What there is

Scratch cards in China go by the name guagua le, literally "scratch for fun," and they are the instant-win arm of the country's two state lottery systems. One family comes from the China Welfare Lottery, the same body that runs Double Color Ball and Super Lotto. The other comes from the China Sports Lottery, which prints an instant ticket series called Fengcai, issued uniformly by the Sports Lottery Administration Center of the General Administration of Sport¹.

Unlike the draw games described on our China lottery page, scratch cards have no draw date and no waiting. You buy the card, scratch off the coating, and know immediately whether you have won. That makes them the most casual form of legal gambling in the country: a 1 yuan ticket bought from a street stand can be scratched on the spot in seconds.

The range of tickets is wide. On the sports side, the Fengcai series alone comes in 1, 5, 10 and 20 yuan denominations, each with a different number of winning chances printed on a single card¹. On the welfare side, themed tickets appear around events and seasons. A 30 yuan ticket called Haoyun Lai, "good luck is coming," launched across the Beijing area with a top prize of 800,000 yuan². For Lunar New Year 2024, a themed ticket called Xinchun Daji 2024 was issued at 50 yuan per ticket³.

Where to play

The everyday place to buy scratch cards is the lottery stand. These small booths, marked with China Welfare Lottery or China Sports Lottery signage, sit on sidewalks, outside convenience stores and shops, and inside shopping areas across Chinese cities. The same stands that sell draw-game tickets keep a display of scratch cards on the counter, and you simply point at the one you want and pay.

The Fengcai instant ticket has an unusual second channel: delivery. It is sold through SF Express couriers, SF Best stores, the SF Express official account, and the Fengcai section of the SF Finance app, with home delivery of tickets¹. That means in cities where the ticket has rolled out, you can order scratch cards to your door the way you would order groceries. The plan for the ticket is to expand sales region by region until it covers the whole country¹.

Themed welfare tickets such as Haoyun Lai tend to launch region by region too. The 30 yuan Haoyun Lai ticket was released across the Beijing area first², so availability of a specific ticket depends on which city you are in and when. If a stand does not have the ticket you are looking for, another stand nearby often will.

How it works

A scratch card is a printed paper ticket with a silver coating over the play area. Before you scratch, read the game's rules, including the odds of winning and the prizes. This information is printed on the back of the card⁵. Each game has its own play style, but the common pattern is that you scratch to reveal symbols or numbers, and matching the combination described on the back wins the prize shown.

The Fengcai tickets are built around multiple winning chances on one card. A single 5 yuan ticket carries 9 separate chances to win, a 10 yuan ticket carries 12, and a 20 yuan ticket carries 20¹. So one card gives you several independent plays rather than one, which is part of what distinguishes the higher denominations.

Claiming depends on the amount. On Fengcai tickets, prizes under 1,000 yuan, inclusive, can be self-claimed by scanning the QR code on the back of the ticket¹. The money goes to you without a trip to a counter. Larger prizes are claimed at lottery stations in the usual way. When you redeem a computer lottery prize over 3,000 yuan, the winner's real-name identity information and redemption information must be registered, and the winner must cooperate with that registration⁴. In practice, that means bringing your ID document, and for a visitor, your passport.

Games and products

The products split into two lines.

Fengcai instant sports lottery tickets. These are the workhorse instant tickets of the China Sports Lottery, printed and issued uniformly by the Sports Lottery Administration Center¹. Four denominations are on offer:

The table shows the pattern clearly: the more you pay for the card, the more chances it holds and the higher the ceiling on the prize¹.

Welfare Lottery themed scratch cards. These are the guagua le tickets most people picture, issued around themes and occasions. Recent examples include:

• Haoyun Lai (30 yuan): launched across Beijing with a top prize of 800,000 yuan². It came with a linked activity, Haoyun Lai Huanle Song Piao, in which scratching a designated prize tier earns you an extra scratch card or free Kuaile 8 tickets².
• Haoyun Shi Bei ("ten times the luck"): a ticket whose first prize is 400,000 yuan⁶.
• 888: a ticket whose first prize is 300,000 yuan⁶.
• Xinchun Daji 2024: a Lunar New Year themed ticket at 50 yuan, issued as a single ticket per set³.

New themed tickets rotate in regularly, so the exact tickets on a stand's counter change through the year, with the biggest selection usually appearing around Lunar New Year.

Costs, prizes and payouts

At the bottom end, a 1 yuan Fengcai ticket gives you 2 winning chances and a top prize of 10,000 yuan, which is a 10,000 to 1 return on the ticket if you hit the ceiling¹. At the top end, the 20 yuan ticket gives 20 chances and a 1 million yuan top prize¹. Between them, the 5 and 10 yuan tickets offer 100,000 and 250,000 yuan tops respectively¹.

On the welfare side, the headline tickets pay 800,000 yuan on the 30 yuan Haoyun Lai², 400,000 yuan on Haoyun Shi Bei⁷, and 300,000 yuan on the 888 ticket⁶. The 50 yuan Xinchun Daji 2024 is a premium ticket aimed at the gift-giving season³.

Real winners illustrate the payouts. One player, Mr. Jin, won a 400,000 yuan first prize on a Haoyun Shi Bei scratch card; he described buying about 300 to 400 yuan of lottery tickets a month, half of it on scratch cards⁶. Another player, Mr. Liu, won a 300,000 yuan first prize on an 888 ticket⁶. These first-prize wins are rare, but they show the prizes are real and are paid.

For the tax side of a large win, see our page on tax on gambling winnings in China. For how prize money moves in general, our gambling payments in China page covers the practical options.

Who can take part

Scratch cards are sold openly at public lottery stands to anyone who walks up, including foreign visitors and residents; there is no separate rule for non-citizens at the point of sale. The one place your status matters is at redemption: a prize over 3,000 yuan requires real-name registration, so a visitor claims with a passport rather than a Chinese ID card⁴. Lottery play in China is for adults, and stands will not sell to children.

Practical tips

A few things worth knowing before your first scratch:

• Read the back first. The rules, odds and prize list are printed on the back of every card, so you know what you are playing for before you scratch⁵.
• Check the QR code for small wins. On Fengcai tickets, anything up to 1,000 yuan can be self-claimed by scanning the code on the back, which saves you a trip back to the stand¹.
• Keep the ticket whole. The QR code and barcode are what validate the ticket, so scratch carefully and do not tear or damage the card before checking it.
• Match the ticket to your budget. With denominations from 1 to 50 yuan, you can spend as little or as much as you like; the 1 yuan Fengcai ticket is the cheapest legal flutter in the country¹.
• Ask the stand operator. Stand staff scratch and check tickets all day and can tell you which themed tickets are currently in circulation in your city, and can check a ticket for you if you are unsure whether it won.
• Bring ID for a big win. If you are lucky enough to clear 3,000 yuan, the redemption requires registered identity information, so have your document with you⁴.

For the wider picture of what is legal and where, see gambling in China.