Lottery business in mainland China remained robust in the first half of 2018, with sales climbing 19.6 percent during the first six months of the year.

China’s Ministry of Finance announced that mainland lottery sales grew to CNY245.2 billion ($36.0 billion) in January to June 2018 period from the CNY205 billion ($30.28 billion) sales it registered in the same period last year.

The biggest sales came from sports lottery, which jumped 36.1 percent to more than CNY134.6 billion ($19.88 billion) in the first six months of 2018 compared with CNY98.9billion ($14.61 billion) in the H1 2017.

Sales of welfare lottery tickets stood at CNY110.6 billion ($16.34 billion) in H1 2018, up 4.2 percent from CNY106.1 billion ($15.67 billion) in the same period last year.