Chinese lottery sales down 35% in April

Chinese lottery sales continued their recovery into April, though with the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic not allowing some provinces to resume sales until May, the monthly total was down 35.0% year-on-year.

Sales for April amounted to CNY23.39bn (£2.67bn/€3.00bn/$3.27bn), compared to CNY35.99bn in the prior year, according to the latest figures from the Chinese Ministry of Finance.

Of this total, CNY11.91bn came from the Welfare Lottery, down 26.9%, while Sports Lottery sales declined 41.8% to CNY11.48bn.

For the first four months of 2020, total lottery sales have fallen 57.1% to CNY61.11bn, after Covid-19 brought the industry to a halt. The biggest impact was seen in February, when total sales were almost wiped out by the pandemic.

Looking at the breakdown of sales by product type, digital products actually grew year-over-year, with the channel’s contribution rising 11.8% to CNY20.61bn. This, however, failed to offset steep declines across a number of other verticals.

Quiz-style game sales fell 95.9% to CNY432.5m, while video lottery sales – which had been zero in February and March, amounted to CNY300. Instant win games’ contribution was down 7.7% at CNY2.34bn, while keno brought in CNY2.7m, down 81.9%.

During the month, only three provinces – Tibet, Xinjiang and Qinghai – reported marginal growth in lottery sales. For the year to date, however, sales across all provinces have declined, the Ministry noted.