Chinese authorities are sending more signals that they intend to restart online lottery sales this year.

On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Finance reported that April’s lottery sales totaled RMB 34.9b (US $5.3b), up 7% year-on-year. Welfare lottery sales gained less than 1% to RMB 18b while sports lottery sales jumped 16.6% to RMB 16.9b. For the year-to-date, overall lottery sales are down 1.4% to RMB 125.7b.

April’s results helped snap the recent downward trend of China’s lottery revenue, which had been on the decline ever since Beijing ordered a ‘temporary’ suspension of online sales in March 2015. The suspension has wrought havoc with online lottery firms like 500.com, which has now gone one full year without any lottery revenue whatsoever.

The temporary suspension of online sales was ordered following a surprise audit of provincial lottery administration centers, which uncovered widespread fraud via the failure to register all online sales.