Mainland China’s total official lottery sales for May increased 7.8 percent year-on-year to approximately RMB34.62 billion (US$5.21 billion), according to official data from the country’s Ministry of Finance.
Welfare lottery sales totalled RMB18.37 billion in May, up by 1.8 percent from the prior-year period, while sports lottery sales jumped 15.6 percent year-on-year to RMB16.25 billion, the ministry said in a Friday statement.
May was the third consecutive month of year-on-year increases in overall lottery sales in mainland China.
Combined lottery sales in the first five months of this year amounted to approximately RMB160.29 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.5 percent.
Welfare lottery sales for the January to May period dipped by 0.9 percent to RMB85.90 billion, while sales of sports lottery products were up by 2.1 percent to RMB74.39 billion.
AGTech Holdings Ltd, a Hong Kong-listed supplier of equipment and services to mainland China’s lottery market, said in a March filing that it expected new regulations for the industry to be introduced this year.
In April, mainland business newspaper The Economic Observer ran a story – quoting a source it didn’t name – suggesting Chinese officials planned to launch pilot programmes later this year to resume online sales of official lottery products.
The suspension of online sales of lottery products in mainland China was confirmed in April 2015 and described at the time as “temporary”. Reasons given included the need to streamline government oversight and to curb fraud by unlicensed sellers and resellers.
