Chinese lottery sales rise 18.6% in February

| By Marese O'Hagan
Chinese lottery sales came to CN¥22.48bn (£2.69bn/€3.18bn/$3.54bn) in February, rising 18.6% year-on-year.

However, this was a fall of 27.2% compared to January.

China’s Ministry of Finance attributed the year-on-year rise to a number of factors that occurred throughout the month, including the first knockout round of football’s UEFA Champions League.

Lottery draw games made up CN¥9.07bn in sales, a fall of 7.7% year-on-year. Betting and prediction games saw sales of CN¥7.01bn in February, up 31.2%, while instant games accumulated CN¥4.94bn in sales- a rise of 58.1%. Keno sales rose by 124.% to CN¥1.44bn.

Sports lottery sales accounted for CN¥13.09bn of the total revenue, up 17.9% yearly, while the welfare lottery brought about the remaining CN¥9.38bn- a rise of 19.7% from February 2021.

Sports lottery sales were made up mostly of betting and prediction games, at CN¥7.10bn. Draw games brought in CN¥3.86bn in sales, while instant game sales came to CN¥2.21bn.

The welfare lottery revenue included lottery draw sales at CN¥5.21bn, instant game sales of CN¥2.72bn and keno sales ofCN¥1.44bn.

Looking at sales by province, Guangdong led the way in both sports lottery and welfare lottery sales, at CN¥1.36bn and CN¥1.05bn respectively.

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