China lottery sales fall for second month, corrupt official sentenced

China’s lottery sales suffered their second straight month of year-on-year declines, while a former lottery boss will be suffering in prison for a lot longer.

On Tuesday, China’s Ministry of Finance announced that combined welfare and sports lottery sales totaled slightly under RMB35b ($5.2b) in March, around 13% less than sales in the same month alst year. This marks the second consecutive month that sales have fallen, and March’s decline was much larger than February’s 8.8% fall.

Sales were down across the board, with welfare lottery sales falling 16.4% in March to RMB16.5b, while the sports lottery was down 9.7% to RMB18.4b. Despite the two-month setback, sales over the first quarter of 2019 are still up 2.1% year-on-year to RMB 106.3b, with the welfare lottery down 6.1% to RMB49b while the sports lottery improved 10.3% to RMB57.25b.

China’s lottery sales had been on a fairly uninterrupted tear for the past three years, setting new records for annual sales, including last year’s RMB511.5b, which was up nearly one-fifth from 2017’s haul. In April 2018, the sports lottery overcame its traditional second-fiddle status and the welfare lottery hasn’t come close to regaining its crown ever since.