Mainland China’s total September sales from official lottery products increased by 13.3 percent year-on-year to approximately CNY41.84 billion (US$6.03 billion), according to official data from the country’s Ministry of Finance.
The growth recorded last month was supported by a 24.3-percent year-on-year increase in sales of sports lottery tickets, to CNY24.02 billion. Welfare lottery sales totalled CNY17.83 billion in September, up by a more modest 1.2 percent from the prior-year period.
In September, sales were up in 22 of the 31 provinces and cities of mainland China authorised to sell lottery tickets. Jiangxi province recorded the highest increase in lottery sales in September, up 43.5 percent year-on-year to approximately CNY1.08 billion, according to the ministry’s data released on Wednesday. Guangdong province however recorded the highest amount of aggregate sales of lottery tickets last month, at about CNY4.10 billion.
Combined sales for the two lottery systems during the first nine months of this year amounted to CNY383.50 billion, a year-on-year increase of 23.4 percent. Welfare lottery sales increased by 4.2 percent year-on-year to reach about CNY165.31 billion, while sales of sports lottery products rose by 43.4 percent to CNY218.18 billion.
Guangdong remained mainland China’s biggest single-province market for lottery products in the first nine months of 2018, with total lottery ticket sales reaching CNY35.95 billion in the period, up 17.3 percent from a year earlier. Guangdong was followed by Jiangsu province, where total lottery ticket sales were CNY32.99 billion, an increase of 31.7 percent from the prior-year period.
Shandong province in eastern China was ranked third, with ticket sales of nearly CNY29.71 billion in the nine months to September 30, an increase of 20.8 percent from a year earlier, according to official data.
