Gambling fever has gripped almost a million Olympic tickets applicants in China as they await their lottery results at the end of the first phase of ticketing.

"Only four tickets, and all for canoeing," said 31-year-old Yu Lingfang, a market director in Beijing who booked over 20 tickets from the opening ceremony to the men's basketball final, worth more than 6,500 yuan (US$865) in total.

Yu is one of about 60 thousand China-based subscribers who booked over 20 tickets and accounted for six percent of the total applicants, according to a survey by the China Internet Network Information Center, a national research body. But as Yu found out, even winning can involve some sense of loss.

"No basketball, no diving and no table tennis. Nothing from these," said Yu. "I also put four bookings for the opening ceremony using four different identification cards and still got nothing."

Over 400,000, or 40 percent, of the total applications went to the basketball competition, which stands as the second most popular choice after the opening ceremony. It was followed by soccer, diving, table tennis and athletics.

However, 600,000 of the 2.2 million tickets made available in the first phase of sales have still not found owners.

Although only half as expensive here as in Athens, the beach volleyball competition has failed to ignite the imagination of most Chinese and has received less than 4,000 bookings. BMX, with its historic Olympic debut, is even less popular along with the other two cycling events, with less than 2 percent of the applicants booking these events.

"I don't have a special crush on beach volleyball," said Chen Shi, 23, a media employee in Beijing who was upset at having her dream of catching the opening ceremony squashed.

However, during the August test events for beach volleyball and BMX the signs of their growing popularity were in full bloom.

Women's world No 1 BMX rider Sarah Walker told China Daily last month that the Olympics is taking BMX to another level and it will soon join basketball and swimming in its ability to grab the attention of young people worldwide.

More than 2 million more tickets will go on sale for domestic fans after the National Day holiday.

(China Daily September 28, 2007)