Mainland China lottery sales drop 13.7%

Official product sales of the Mainland China lottery have dropped 13.7% year-on-year during April, the Ministry of Finance revealed.

China.- The Ministry of Finance of China released the latest financial results from lottery operations in the country. The information reveals that sales of official lottery products in the territory stood at €4.67 billion.

However, the figure represents a 13.7% decrease when compared to the same period in 2018, according to official data. Sales of welfare lottery tickets, for instance, dropped to €2.1 billion last month, which is a staggering 17.4% fall.

On the other hand, sports lottery sales increased by 2.5% year-on-year to €18.46 billion.

Even Guangdong province, which last year posted the highest combined sales of welfare and sports lottery tickets, was down 16.8%. It still continues to be the leading market in the country, with sales reaching €1.7 billion in January-April. However, that means a 7.8% decrease year-on-year.

2018’s growth

According to the Ministry of Finance, Mainland China’s total sales from official lottery products in full-2018 totalled €66.3 billion, which represents a 19.9% increase when compared to the previous year.

Welfare lottery tickets in the 12-month period reached €29.1 billion, approximately 3.5% higher than the number that was reported in full-year 2017. Sports lottery sales also posted a good performance with a 36.8% year-on-year increase to €37.2 billion.

Mainland China also posted an increase in lottery sales in all of the 31 provinces and cities authorised to sell lottery tickets. The only territory in China that did not achieve a revenue increase was Tibet, which experienced a year-on-year decline of 4.3%.

Guangdong was once again the top scorer in China, as its total lottery ticket sales reached the €6.3 billion figure in the 12 month period, up 15.9% from 2017. The province was followed by Jiangsu, which increased revenues by 25.3% to €5.7 billion.