China’s lottery sales fell by more than two-fifths in January and will likely go down to zero when February’s numbers are released.

On Wednesday, China’s Ministry of Finance announced that lottery sales in the month of January totaled RMB27.2b (US$3.9b), a decline of 43.3% from the same month last year. Welfare lottery sales were down 39.3% to RMB12.9b while the sports lottery tumbled 46.4% to RMB14.3b, the latter figure reflecting the boost that January 2019’s sales got from the AFC Asian Cup football tournament.

This January’s overall sales decline – the 12th straight month of negative growth – reflects the shutdown of most lottery operations on January 22 to observe the annual Spring Festival celebrations. That shutdown was supposed to end on January 31 but was extended to February 9 as the rapid spread of the coronavirus prompted fears of lottery players infecting each other after huddling together in small retail outlets.

That shutdown has yet to be lifted, despite recent suggestions by the government’s official lottery site that retailers were preparing to open their shops by furiously disinfecting all surfaces and installing ‘temperature detectors’ to verify that no one who appears to have contracted the COVID-19 disease gets in – or out – of the shop without the authorities finding out.