China\u2019s lottery sales shot up by one-fifth in 2018 as the FIFA World Cup drove sports lottery sales to their newly dominant position.<\/p>\n
On Friday, China\u2019s Ministry of Finance issued its official lottery sales tally for December 2018, which saw overall sales rise 8.4% to RMB43b (US$6.4b). The gains were entirely due to the sports lottery, which reported sales rising 17.8% to RMB 22.4b, while the formerly dominant welfare lottery reported sales of RMB20.6b, a year-on-year decline of 0.2%.<\/p>\n
For the year as a whole, overall sales rose 19.9% to RMB511.5b ($75.8b), the third straight year of annual growth and a new market record. Sports lottery sales shot up nearly 37% to RMB287b while the welfare lottery sales hit RMB224.5b, a far more modest 3.5% annual improvement. By comparison,\u00a02017\u2019s overall sales\u00a0were up only 8% from 2016.<\/p>\n
The sports lottery was once a poor cousin to its welfare counterpart but the sports product\u00a0assumed the dominant position\u00a0for the first time last April. The sports lottery\u2019s dominance was assured by\u00a0last summer\u2019s World Cup action\u00a0and it maintained that dominance through the rest of 2018, although December\u2019s margin of victory was smaller than\u00a0some previous months.<\/p>\n
Of China\u2019s 34 provincial-level administrative units, 30 reported annual lottery sales increases. Jiangsu posted the biggest annual increase, shooting up nearly RMB9b, followed by Zhejiang (+RMB8b), Shandong (+RMB7.2b), Guangdong (+RMB6.7b) and Henan (+RMB5b).<\/p>\n
China\u2019s state-run lottery operations \u2013 the only form of gambling permitted on the mainland \u2013 continued to be racked by scandals in 2018, including several senior lottery administrators issuing\u00a0televised confessions of large-scale embezzlement\u00a0of lottery funds.<\/p>\n
The scandals have ensured that China\u2019s \u2018temporary\u2019 suspension of online sales \u2013 which will\u00a0celebrate its fourth anniversary\u00a0in March \u2013 continues for at least the foreseeable future. China\u2019s government has occasionally sent\u00a0mixed signals on its online lottery views, but no tangible steps have been taken to lift the online ban.<\/p>\n
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