land China’s official lottery sales increased by 8.9% in May in year-on-year terms, according to data from the country’s Ministry of Finance.

Total lottery product sales accounted to approximately RMB37.70bn (US$5.51 billion), although this figure represented a 1.4% decrease from the previous month.

Welfare lottery sales decreased by 0.8% in May compared to the prior-year period, whilst sports lottery sales jumped up 19.8% to RMB19.47bn.

Sales were up in 22 of the 31 provinces that are authorised to sell lottery tickets on the Chinese mainland. Guangdong province reported the highest combined sales of welfare and sports lottery tickets last year, but saw sales decline by 4.3% year-on-year to RMB3.78bn. However, it remained the largest-grossing market for lottery sales in May.

The total sales of lottery products in mainland China for the first five months of 2017 increased by 6.8% compared to the prior-year period, to about RMB171.19bn. Welfare lottery sales totaled RMB88.29bn, an increase of 2.8%, while sports lottery sales rose by 11.4% to nearly RMB82.90bn in year-on-year terms.