Mainland China’s total September sales from official lottery products increased by 15.1 percent year-on-year to approximately CNY36.93 billion (US$5.56 billion), according to official data from the country’s Ministry of Finance.
The growth recorded last month was supported by a 24.4-percent year-on-year increase in sales of sports lottery tickets, to CNY19.32 billion. Welfare lottery sales totalled CNY17.61 billion in September, up by a more modest 6.5 percent from the prior-year period.
In September, sales were up in 28 of the 31 provinces and cities of mainland China authorised to sell lottery tickets. Total lottery sales in Fujian province nearly doubled from a year earlier, to approximately CNY1.90 billion, according to the ministry’s data. In Guangdong province, sales of lottery tickets grew by 21.6 percent year-on-year to CNY 3.91 billion.
Combined sales for the two lottery systems during the first nine months of this year amounted to CNY310.78 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.3 percent. Welfare lottery sales increased by 4.8 percent year-on-year to reach about CNY158.61 billion, while sales of sports lottery products rose by 9.9 percent to CNY151.67 billion.
Guangdong remained mainland China’s biggest single-province market for lottery products in the first nine months of 2017, with total lottery ticket sales reaching CNY30.64 billion in the period, up by 5.6 percent from a year earlier. Guangdong was followed by Jiangsu province, where total lottery ticket sales were CNY25.05 billion, up by 5.5 percent from the prior-year period.
Shandong province in eastern China was ranked third, with ticket sales of nearly CNY24.60 billion in the nine months to September 30, an increase of 4.9 percent from a year earlier, according to official data.
