China’s lottery sales rise as economic prospects remain hazy
Lottery sales in China continued their rise in July, with a paucity of economic confidence driving ticket purchases, analysts say
More people appear to be taking a chance on China’s lottery with the country’s economic prospects on the wane, as sales saw an 11.8 per cent increase year on year in July and a total of 54.7 billion yuan (US$7.7 billion) in tickets were sold over the same month.
From January to July, China’s lottery sales were valued at 363 billion yuan, for a 40.3 billion increase year on year and an uptick of 12.5 per cent.
Gambling has been strictly prohibited since the country’s founding in 1949. The sole exceptions are the China Sports Lottery and China Welfare Lottery, with the latter using its proceeds to support social welfare programmes.
Sports lottery agencies sold 37 billion yuan for a year-on-year increase of 19.3 per cent, mainly due to the 2024 European Football Championship that took place from June 14 to July 14.
Some elated scratch-off lottery winners have taken to social media platform Xiaohongshu to post proof of their conquests, with an average haul between 700 yuan and 1,000 yuan - though the maximum prize is 1 million yuan.
A Chengdu tax company commented on their own Xiaohongshu channel that citizens’ “herd mentality” and “conformity” regarding lottery wins create a “fear of missing out,” driving up hopes of winning a large cash prize and ticket sales in turn.