Chinese lottery sales rise in February
Sales reached CNY41.85bn (US$5.7bn).
China.- The Ministry of Finance has reported that lottery ticket sales reached CNY41.85bn (US$5.7bn) in February. That’s an increase of 15.3 per cent in year-on-year terms but a drop of 13.73 per cent sequentially. The year-on-year increase was put down to the fact that the lottery market was closed during the Spring Festival holiday last February.
Welfare Lottery sales were CNY14.8bn (US$2bn), up 17.4 per cent year-on-year, while sports lottery sales amounted to CNY27bn (US$3.7bn), up 14.2 per cent. The sale of lottery numbers reached CNY11.3bn (US$1.5bn), up 15.4 per cent year-on-year. Sales of lottery guessing reached CNY17.6bn (US$2.4bn), up 33.6 per cent and instant sales were CNY10.4bn (US$1.4bn) down 6.6 per cent. Keno sales were CNY2.4bn (US$0.3bn), up 16.9 per cent.
Sales of lottery numbers, guessing, instant lottery tickets and Keno lottery tickets accounted for 27.1 per cent, 42.1 per cent, 25 per cent and 5.8 per cent of total lottery sales respectively. Lottery sales increased in all provinces except Xinjiang. Zhejiang, Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangsu saw the largest increases.
Cumulatively, Chinese lottery sales for the first two months of 2025 were down 3.7 per cent year-on-year at CNY90.3bn (US$12.3bn). Welfare lottery sales totalled CNY32bn (US$4.4bn), down 0.8 per cent year-on-year and sports lottery sales CNY58.3bn (US$7.9bn), down 5.3 per cent year-on-year.
Sales of lottery numbers were down 6 per cent in year-on-year terms at CNY24.8bn (US$3.4bn). The sales of lottery guessing reached CNY38.2bn (US$5.2bn), up 5.1 per cent year-on-year; the sales of instant lottery amounted to CNY21.7bn (US$3bn), down 13.9 per cent; and the sales of Keno lottery reached CNY5.5bn (US$0.7bn), down 4.3 per cent year-on-year.
