China’s lottery sales continue to increase following their lengthy COVID-19 suspension but still have a long way to go to regain their former glories.

Figures released Monday by China’s Ministry of Finance show April’s lottery sales hit RMB23.4b (US$3.3b), more than double the RMB10.5b reported in March, but still representing a 35% decline from the same month last year.

China’s lottery operations have now posted year-on-year declines every month since February 2019. China halted all lottery sales in January and didn’t lift the prohibition until mid-March, although Beijing didn’t resume sales until this month.  

Sports lottery sales continue to suffer from the global suspension of major sports events, resulting in April’s sales falling nearly 42% year-on-year to RMB11.5b. That decline allowed the welfare lottery to reclaim the leaderboard for the first time since March 2018 with sales of RMB11.9b, although that was down nearly 27% year-on-year.