Sales of Chinese state lotteries rose more than 50% in July, with instant lottery tickets and “guess” sports betting driving strong increases during the month.

Finance Ministry data for July showed that nationwide lottery sales rose 55.9% year-on-year to CNY48.09 billion ($6.73 billion/€6.20 billion/£5.31 billion). are.

Sports lotteries revenue increased 63.5% to CNY31.03 billion, while social lottery revenue increased 44.3% to CNY17.86 billion.

The ministry said the increase was mainly due to growth in sales of instant lottery tickets and so-called “guess lottery tickets,” i.e. betting on sporting events.

Increased instant lottery sales

Instant lottery sales rose 144.6% year-on-year to CNY11.2 billion in July, with betting now the largest division after sales rose 73.6% to CNY18.9 billion.

The sales volume of lottery digital, betting, instant and keno lottery tickets accounted for 31.06%, 38.61%, 22.98% and 7.35% of the total lottery sales, respectively.

Lottery sales increased in all provinces of the country compared to July 2022. Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong increased significantly, with a year-on-year increase of CNY 1.9 billion, CNY 1.6 billion, CNY 1.6 billion and CNY 1.1 billion, respectively.

In the fiscal year ended July 30, 2023, lottery sales rose 51.2% to CNY 322.8 billion. Social lotteries revenue rose 23.4% to CNY107.7 billion, while sports lottery revenue rose 70.5% to CNY215.1 billion.