China’s lottery market took both forward and backward steps in November, with the welfare lottery segment largely to blame for the backward movement. 

Figures released Thursday by China’s Ministry of Finance show nationwide lottery sales of RMB36b (US$5.5b) in November, a 17.2% rise from October’s total but a 4.6% decline from the same month last year, showing that the market has a long way to go to erase the array of negativity the market faced in 2020. 

November’s sports lottery sales were essentially flat year-on-year, falling only 0.2% to RMB21b, although that was RMB2.6b better than October’s tally. November’s welfare lottery sales slid 10.1% year-on-year to RMB15b, although this too was up from October’s RMB12.3b. 

For the year-to-date, overall lottery sales are down 22% to RMB297.4b, with sports down 19.4% to RMB168.2b and welfare falling 25% to RMB129.2b. While overall sales enjoyed positive growth in 14 provinces in November, sales over the first 11 months of 2020 were down in 29 Chinese provinces.