As one of the critical components of informal institutions, culture plays an important role in shaping firm behaviors. This paper investigates the impact of lottery culture on firm financial misreporting. The result shows that firms are more likely to have financial misreporting where the lottery culture is more popular, for which increases the individuals' risk tolerance and boost their appetites for risk-taking. This association is stronger when managers are under greater pressure. Besides, sound governance helps to weaken the above association between the lottery culture and financial misreporting. Moreover, we find that firms are associated with more aggressive financial policies and a lower level of financial information quality in areas with higher lottery culture atmosphere. This paper not only enriches the economic consequences of lottery culture, but also extends the determinants of financial misreporting. The findings have great implications for regulating firm behaviors and promoting the sustainable development of the capital market.