China’s lottery sales fell for the sixth consecutive month in November, dragged down by the country’s increasing economic slowdown and the suspension of online lottery sales.

Figures released this week by the Ministry of Finance showed total lottery sales in November falling 10.2% to RMB 30.6b (US $4.6b). Welfare lottery sales fell 6.6% to RMB 17b while sports lottery sales were off 14.4% to RMB 13.6b. For the year-to-date, total sales are down 3.6% to RMB 333.8b ($50.6b).

While the decline can chiefly be blamed on China’s overall economic woes, the fall dovetailed with Beijing’s imposition of a suspension of online lottery sales last March. This ‘temporary’ suspension was sparked after an audit uncovered widespread financial malfeasance at provincial lottery administration offices.

Meanwhile, Friday saw China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announce that it had detained 470 suspects for running a bogus online lottery operation that scammed an estimated RMB 200m ($32m) from over 1,000 victims.