Japan to introduce online lottery sales this year

Japan’s Internal Affairs Ministry announced Friday that from October 2018 Japanese punters will be able to buy tickets online for most public-run lotteries, including the popular Jumbo Takarakuji series, which are sold five times annually and offers a prize of Yen 1 billion, as well as regular Takarakuji tickets and the Numbers and Loto series.

The Japan Times reports that those wishing to buy the tickets online will need to register as members on the appropriate website, and cash prizes will be wired to winners’ designated bank accounts.

“One reason (to push the online option) is because lottery sales have been decreasing,” an official at the ministry, which deals with laws regulating lotteries, told the newspaper.

Sales of lottery tickets have been falling since they peaked in fiscal 2005, when about Yen 1.1 trillion worth of tickets were sold. In fiscal 2016, sales came to just over Yen 845 billion.

The official said about 93 percent of tickets are sold at outlets commonly set up near train stations. But their business hours are limited and there are some areas which do not have the outlets, so there are likely many missed sales opportunities. Online sales will allow people to buy lottery tickets around the clock.

Lottery punters aged 50 or older account for about 60 percent of store sales, which implies that “efforts to reach potential customers in younger generations have been weak, and that expanding sales channels to web and smartphones is needed,” the official said.

Lottery tickets are sold by prefectural governments and major cities in Japan. A portion lottery revenues is retained by the prefectures or cities and is used as part of their budgets.

Internal affairs minister Seiko Noda said she hopes to see the new service attract 500,000 users in its first six months.