China experiences lottery sales drop

A new report shows that the Asian country experienced a contraction in January.

China.- Lottery sales in China fell 10.7 percent in January, according to data released by the Ministry of Finance. It is estimated that the year-on-year fall was heavily influenced by the timing of the Chinese New Year.

The local lottery collected US$4.23 billion in January, almost an 11 percent lower than the numbers reported during the same month in 2016. Welfare lottery sales also experienced a significant fall of 10.6 percent to US$2.7 billion, and sports lottery sales followed those results with a 10.8 percent decrease to US$1.8 billion. The biggest sector of the lottery market in China, Lotto, fell 15 percent for the Sports Lottery, whilst an 8.9 deterioration was also experienced in the Welfare Lottery sector.

On the other hand, back in January the Ministry released the sports lottery figures, where it’s detailed that they experienced a significant growth boosted by the Euro 2016. The results are also a big improvement from 2015, when the sales fell 3.8 percent. Last year’s sales represent a year-on-year improvement of 7.3 percent, with records of US$57.8 billion.