Mainland China’s total July sales from official lottery products increased by 4.2 percent year-on-year to approximately RMB33.76 billion (US$5.13 billion), according to official data from the country’s Ministry of Finance.
Welfare lottery sales totalled RMB17.42 billion in July, up by 4.8 percent from the prior-year period, while sports lottery sales increased by 3.5 percent year-on-year to RMB16.34 billion.
In July, sales were up in 18 of the 31 provinces and cities of mainland China authorised to sell lottery tickets. Total lottery sales in Beijing declined by 7.0 percent year-on-year in July, according to the ministry’s data. In Guangdong province, sales of lottery tickets grew by 13.8 percent year-on-year to RMB3.44 billion.
Combined sales for the two lottery systems during the first seven months of this year amounted to RMB237.88 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.4 percent. Welfare lottery sales increased by 3.9 percent to reach about RMB123.53 billion, while sales of sports lottery products rose by 7.0 percent to RMB115.24 billion.
Guangdong remained mainland China’s biggest single-province market for lottery products in the first seven months of 2017, with total lottery ticket sales reaching RMB23.30 billion in the period, up by 2.2 percent from a year earlier. Guangdong was followed by Jiangsu province, where total lottery ticket sales were RMB19.26 billion, up by 4.4 percent year-on-year.
Shandong province in eastern China was ranked third, with ticket sales of nearly RMB19.20 billion in the seven months to July 31, an increase of 5.2 percent from a year earlier, according to official data.
