China’s lottery market posted its second consecutive year of negative growth in 2020, driven low by pandemic shutdowns and the government-ordered halt of some high-frequency products. 

Figures released Monday by China’s Ministry of Finance show overall lottery sales of RMB36.5b (US$5.6b) in the month of December, a 10.8% decline from December 2019 but essentially flat from November 2020’s total. Sports lottery sales were down 4.2% to RMB21.2b while welfare lottery sales dipped 18.6% to RMB15.3b. 

For 2020 as a whole, overall sales fell nearly 21% to just under RMB334b ($51.5b), with sports down 17.9% to RMB189.5b and welfare falling nearly one-quarter to RMB144.5b. The 2020 decline was greater than the 17.5% fall suffered in 2019, which spoiled a five-year run of strong annual sales growth. 

The 2019 decline was partly due to an unfavorable comparison with 2018, a FIFA World Cup year that helped enshrine the sports lottery’s dethroning of the welfare product’s traditional market-leading role.