China’s lottery sales suffered a downturn in September after a two-month growth streak, a trend that is likely to continue following new rules restricting ‘high frequency’ lottery products.

Figures released Friday by China’s Ministry of Finance show overall lottery sales of RMB35.8b (US$5.35b) in the month of September, a 1.5% decline from the same month last year. The decline ended the market’s modest growth streak over the past two months, which followed 18 months of annual declines.

September’s decline was entirely due to welfare lottery sales falling 11% to RMB13.9b, while sports lottery sales rose 5.8% to RMB21.9b thanks to the resumption of global sports leagues following their pandemic halt.

For the year-to-date, overall sales are down 27% to RMB230.7b, with welfare lottery down 28.8% to RMB101.9b and sports lottery falling 25.4% to RMB128.8b.