Chinese Company Launches Blockchain-powered Lottery in Cambodia

Chinese news agencies are reporting that the Fujian-based Hongbo has launched blockchain-powered lottery tickets in Cambodia – with its operator claiming its product is “the world’s first paper-based blockchain-powered lottery.”

Hongbo is a commercial printing company and long-term lottery operator, and in February this year announced that it was working on the project with Jin Xiang, a Cambodia-based subsidiary of Hong Kong’s Jin Cai International Holding. The Chinese companies also announced that they have partnered with Cambodian gambling companies on the initiative.

Per JRJ and STCN, the companies have recently received regulatory permission from Cambodian regulatory bodies – and launched their products over the weekend.

Hongbo’s offering is an “instant” lottery ticket named Goldvalley KHR, and is not unlike the scratchcard products popular in many other countries. The tickets allow buyers to instantly discover if they have won, and make claims at the point of purchase.

However, according to China.com, the tickets help reduce the risk of fraud by using digital ID authentication, as well as incorporating the buyer’s mobile phone number and QR codes. The operator says that the platform will also “reduce the risk of money laundering.”

In February Hongbo stated that it would provide the required blockchain technology for the platform, named Scratchblock, as well as lottery ticket issuing services.

The company explained that its lottery products were “tailored to suit Cambodian tastes and lottery ticket purchasing habits.”

The Southeast Asian nation is proving to be something of a dark horse in the global blockchain race, and is on course to gazump Beijing, becoming the first country on Earth to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The central bank, the National Bank of Cambodia, is working on its project – known locally as the Bakong – in conjunction with a Japanese blockchain provider named Soramitsu.