China’s lottery sales enjoyed a month-to-month improvement in November but still recorded the market’s 10th straight month of year-on-year declines.

Figures released this week by China’s Ministry of Finance show overall lottery sales of RMB37.8b (US$5.42b) in the month of November, a 12% decline from the same month last year but a significant improvement over October’s RMB27.5b.

October’s sales were dampened thanks to a nationwide ban on most lottery products to mark the annual National Day holiday. Even with that bit of pesky patriotism aside, November’s sports lottery sales still fell 8% year-on-year to RMB21.1b, while welfare lottery sales slid 15% to RMB16.7b.

Total sales over the first 11 months of 2019 are down 11.6% to RMB377.65b ($54.2b), with sports lotteries down 8.4% to RMB210.65b and welfare lotteries falling 15.3% to RMB167b. Among China’s regional lottery administrators, only Sichuan province reported a year-on-year improvement in 2019 to date (and that gain was extremely modest).