With many South Africans appearing to place their hopes on games of chance, illegal online gambling and the national lottery are experiencing a surge in business.Ithuba, which has been operating the national lottery since June last year, says it has seen a steady rise in lottery ticket sales - a 34% increase in less than six months.An average of 224,499 Lotto tickets are sold daily.Ithuba sold 174million tickets between June and December last year, and 233million between January and May this year. The figures include sales of Lotto, Lotto Plus, Powerball, Powerball Plus and Sportstake tickets.Economist Mike Schussler said though this increase seemed strange in the current financial climate, South Africans could be gambling in an attempt to find luck during tough times."When people are in tough times, they try to 'make a plan' and in this case, it is in the form of gambling," he said."There will [always] be a significant amount of people with a warped perception of having luck on their side and will try to see what will happen ... "The National Gambling Board said it had not seen an increase in gambling licence applications but added that illegal online gambling was becoming a big problem."We have a dedicated inspectorate to monitor the internet for online offerings and report to the police for enforcement. Regular raids on gambling outlets are also conducted by the SAPS with our assistance. Despite these efforts, illegal gambling keeps increasing," said Wisani Ngobeni, spokesman for the board.Ngobeni said illegal gambling establishments used games loaded onto overseas servers, bypassing South African laws. - Additional reporting by Azizzar Mosupi..