Sales from official lottery products in China are up in the first nine months of 2016, according to the country’s Ministry of Finance.

Official data from the finance ministry indicated that total lottery sales in the January to September period reached RMB289.74 billion (USD42.74 billion), a 6.6 percent increase compared to the same period in 2015.

Sales of welfare lottery products contributed RMB151.34 billion—a 1.6 percent jump year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Finance. Sports lottery sales also jumped 12.6 percent year-on-year to RMB138.40 billion. Combined sales for the two systems in September totaled RMB32.07 billion, a 10.3 percent increase year-on-year.

The ministry said sales were up in most of the 31 provinces and cities of mainland China that were authorized to sell lottery tickets, including Shandong (RMB5.1 billion), Hunan (RMB4.03 billion), Shaanxi (RMB3.94 billion), Gunagdong (RMB3.69 billion) and Hubei (RMB3.52 billion). Tibet also recorded a 42.6 percent year-on-year increase, while sales in Qinghai province and in Hubei province were up by 2.5 percent and 31.4 percent year-on-year, respectively.