Chinese lottery sales soar 26.1 percent

The China Daly newspaper reports that lottery sales in China soared 26.1 percent year-on-year in May 2012 to reach 23.62 billion yuan ($3.75 billion), according to statistics released by the Ministry of Finance Wednesday.

The growth was slightly down from the 26.4-percent rise recorded in April.

Welfare lottery ticket sales reached 14.01 billion yuan in May, up 29.8 percent from a year ago, while sales of sports lottery tickets gained 21 percent year on year to 9.6 billion yuan.

The Ministry commented that new lottery games have gone on sale and sales outlets for quiz-type games have expanded, along with more sporting events in the month.

The May figure raised total lottery sales in the first five months of 2012 by 28.4 percent year-on-year to 107.44 billion yuan.

All Chinese provincial-level regions, excluding Beijing, reported year-on-year gains in lottery sales during the January-May period, with the biggest increase recorded by Jiangsu province, where sales rose by 4.74 billion yuan from the same period last year.

In related news, the World Lottery Association reports that Q1 2012 global lottery sales are up 13.4 percent compared with the same period last year. There was growth across the world, with the Asia-Pacific region dominating, turning in a 27.9 percent increase.

Chinese Mainland lotteries and Japan’s latest reconstruction lottery were top achievers, with Japan sales up 52.6 percent.