Mainland China’s total lottery sales for September stood at CNY36.40 billion (US$5.19 billion), down 13.0 percent year-on-year, according to official data published on Thursday by the country’s Ministry of Finance. Sales of lottery products have now declined for eighth straight months, according to official data.
Thursday’s data showed that welfare lottery sales fell to just above CNY15.69 billion in September, down 12.0 percent from a year earlier. Sports lottery tickets sales fell by 13.8 percent year-on-year, to nearly CNY20.71 billion.
In the first nine months of 2019, lottery sales of all types in mainland China amounted to approximately CNY315.81 billion, down 17.7 percent compared to the same period in 2018, according to the ministry. Welfare lottery sales fell by 13.4 percent year-on-year to CNY143.10 billion, while sports lottery sales dropped by 20.8 percent to CNY172.71 billion.
In September, only four of the 31 provinces and municipalities of mainland China authorised to sell lottery tickets recorded an increase in lottery sales.
The southwest province of Sichuan was the only province where total sales of lottery products grew in the first nine months in 2019. The data from the ministry indicated that for the January to September period, Sichuan’s lottery sales totalled CNY14.15 billion, up by nearly 10.1 percent.
Guangdong remained China’s biggest provincial market for lottery sales, according to the latest data. Total such sales in the first nine months of this year nonetheless declined 18.0 percent from a year earlier, to CNY29.47 billion.
