Sales of Chinese lottery tickets soar

Chinese lotteries have seen ticket sales rocket in August following strong growth in July, according to the country's Ministry of Finance.

Gambling in mainland China is still largely forbidden, however, the country does operate two lotteries. These are the Chinese Sports Lottery and the Chinese Welfare Lottery which are hugely popular and have been increasing in sales in step with the rise of disposable income in the country.

Ticket sales from the Chinese Welfare lottery increased an impressive 13.1% in comparison to the same month in the previous year. Total ticket sales reached yuan 17.47bn (£1.95bn).

The Chinese Welfare lottery has been operational since 1987, and the game and its beneficiaries are similar to any other government lottery with funds being given to vulnerable members of society and other good causes.

The Chinese Sports Lottery was even more successful seeing an impressive ticket sale growth of 16.4% year on year. The sharp rise meant that the revenue from the Sports lottery outperformed the Welfare alternative reaching a total of Yuan 17.59bn (£1.97bn).

Overall sales increased 6.3% over the last eight months, bringing the revenue from the two lotteries up to Yuan 273.85bn (£30.6bn).