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According to China's top graft watchdog, Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), two Senior State Lottery officials in China have been relieved of their duties as they face corruption allegations of taking bribe.

The officials are the former head of the China Welfare Lottery Management Center, Bao Xuequan and Wang Yunge, his deputy.

Xuequan and Yunge were suspected of corruption after a thorough investigation by the CCDI. Both officials were found to have used their positions to seek personal enrichment and have "improper sexual relations". In addition, Wang Yunge also used his position to resist the investigation against him and leaked state secrets.

According to a statement on the CCDI website, both officials have been removed from their positions by the Ministry of Civil Affairs which is in charge of the Lottery Management.

This move is in line with President Xi Jinping's desire to restlessly fight corruption in the country since he assumed office in 2012. 

Also, this is quite important as outside of the two state managed lotteries in China, every other form of gambling is illegal.

Although lottery earnings are supposed to be channelled back into social welfare and sporting projects, there have long been suspicions that corrupt individuals have been pocketing a tangible portion of it.

According to Reuters, "A 2015 report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state-backed think tank, found that almost 17 billion yuan ($2.56 billion) was improperly used out of a randomly inspected 658 billion yuan spent from the state lottery fund that year".