Sales of official mainland China lottery products rose 7 percent year-on-year in April, to nearly RMB34.89 billion (US$5.3 billion), the Ministry of Finance announced on Thursday.
Welfare lottery sales decreased by 0.8 percent year-on-year, to RMB17.95 billion. Sports lottery product sales increased 16.6 percent to nearly RMB16.94 billion, said the ministry.
In Guangdong province, bordering Macau and Hong Kong, April sales for both lottery systems rose by 13.9 percent year-on-year, to RMB3.49 billion, according to ministry data. The provinces of Hunan, Yunnan, Henan and Shaanxi also posted significant year-on-year improvements in sales, said the ministry.
AGTech Holdings Ltd, a Hong Kong-listed supplier of equipment and services to mainland China’s lottery market, said in a March filing that it expected new regulations for the industry to be introduced this year.
In April, mainland business newspaper The Economic Observer ran a story – quoting a source it didn’t name – suggesting Chinese officials planned to launch pilot programmes later this year to resume online sales of official lottery products.
The suspension of online lottery sales in mainland China was confirmed in April 2015 and described at the time as “temporary”. Reasons given were the need to streamline government oversight and to curb fraud by unlicensed sellers and resellers.
