China lottery sales up 3.4 pct in April

Jun 10, 2015 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News, Rest of Asia  

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Mainland China’s total official lottery sales for April increased to RMB32.6 billion (US$5.33 billion), up 3.4 percent year-on-year, according to official data from the country’s Ministry of Finance published on June 4.

Welfare lottery sales increased by 2.2 percent to reach RMB18.1 billion, while sports lottery sales rose 5 percent to RMB14.5 billion, the Ministry of Finance announced.

Sales were up in 17 of the 31 provinces and cities of mainland China where sales of lottery tickers are allowed. But total lottery sales in Beijing and Shanghai declined by 9.1 percent and 42.2 percent respectively in April, according to the ministry’s data.

Combined lottery sales in the first four months of this year amounted to RMB127.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14.2 percent.

In April the mainland authorities banned what they called “unauthorised” online sale of lottery tickets, pending a regulatory review.

Last year saw RMB382.4 billion spent on official lottery tickets, up 23.6 percent from 2013. Investment analysts said the level of improvement in 2014 was partly due to the FIFA World Cup, a global soccer tournament that took place between June 12 and July 13 that year. Sales of sports lottery tickets increased by 92.9 percent year-on-year in July 2014.

DJI Holdings Plc – described as a licensed promoter and distributor of Chinese sports lottery and welfare lottery products to third party retailers and direct to consumers – is to announce its full year 2014 results on June 16. The firm is listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market.

DJI says it operates both a business-to-business ticket sales network – targeting large Chinese corporations – and a business-to-consumer sales operation; the latter via group-owned and operated websites serving desktop and mobile communications devices.

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