Mainland China’s total July sales from official lottery products increased by 19.8 percent year-on-year to approximately RMB32.4 billion (US$4.86 billion), according to official data from the country’s Ministry of Finance.
Welfare lottery sales totalled RMB16.6 billion in July, up by 6.7 percent from the prior-year period, while sports lottery sales jumped 37.6 percent year-on-year to RMB15.8 billion.
Major international soccer championships – such as the Euro 2016 tournament that took place in France between June 10 and July 10 – typically boost sales of official sports lottery products in China.
In July, sales were up in almost all of the 31 provinces and cities of mainland China authorised to sell lottery tickets. Total lottery sales in Beijing and Shanghai increased year-on-year by 20.9 percent and 12.9 percent respectively in July, according to the ministry’s data. In Guangdong province, sales of lottery tickets grew by 16.6 percent year-on-year to RMB3.0 billion.
Combined sales for the two lottery systems during the first seven months of this year amounted to RMB226.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.6 percent. Welfare lottery sales increased by 0.4 percent to reach about RMB118.9 billion, while sales of sports lottery products rose by 11.9 percent to RMB107.7 billion.
Guangdong remained mainland China’s biggest single-province market for lottery products in the first seven months of 2016, with total lottery ticket sales reaching RMB22.8 billion in the period, up by 14.3 percent from a year earlier. Guangdong was followed by Jiangsu province, where total lottery ticket sales were RMB18.4 billion, up by 5.9 percent year-on-year.
Shandong province in eastern China was ranked third, with ticket sales reaching RMB18.3 billion in the seven months to July 31, an increase of 1.3 percent from a year earlier, according to official data.
