China’s Lottery Sales Hit Record High in First Five Months, With Youths as Major Buyers

BEIJING, July 21 (TiPost) — The China Welfare Lottery sold 71.781 billion yuan in the first five months, up 16.2% year-on-year, while the China Sports Lottery, 153.390 billion yuan, up 73.7% year-on-year.

Among the five months, February saw the highest year-on-year increase of 86% in lottery sales, and April saw the highest lottery sales of 50.326 billion yuan.

In the first five months of 2012-2018, the lottery sales experienced a period of rapid double-digit growth, followed by a gradual decline to single digits. The year 2019 and 2020 witnessed a negative increase in lottery sales. In the wake of the onslaught of the pandemic, the growth resumed in the following three years, with national lottery sales increasing by as much as 59.2% in the first five months of 2021.

Data show that the average search index for “lottery” on social platforms was only 8,602 in 2019; but from 2023, the average search index for “lottery” reached 345,000 as of July 9, up by 1233.57% year-on-year. Among these searchers, the proportion of young users aged 18-30 increased from less than 40% to 48%, accounting for nearly half of all age groups.

In terms of provinces, the data shows that in the first five months of this year, the lottery sales of all provinces in China saw growth compared with the same period of the previous year. Among them, Guangdong province had the highest lottery sales of 22.95 billion yuan, or 10.1% of the national total. It is followed by Jiangsu province, Zhejiang province, Shandong province and Sichuan province, all of which had lottery sales of over 10 billion yuan in the first five months.

In addition, the province with the highest increase in lottery sales was Shanghai, up 142.1% compared to the same period last year; followed by Anhui, Jiangxi and Jiangsu, with year-on-year increases of more than 60%.

In terms of the amount of money spent on lottery tickets per capita, Tianjin has the most favorite lottery ticket buyers in the first five months of 2023, whose per capita amount of money reached 273 yuan, according to TiPost; followed by Zhejiang and Beijing, whose per capita amount of money were more than 270 yuan.

Currently young people’s purpose for buying lottery tickets is no longer purely to win, but to be entertained and relaxed. Therefore, compared with the ShuangSeQiu (similar to the Powerball in the U.S.) and the Super Lotto, the scratch-off ticket is more popular.

Compared with the hundreds of million dollar jackpot of the ShuangSeQiu, the winning prize of scratch-off lottery ranges from 10 yuan to 1.5 million yuan, with the hit rate being as high as more than 50%. Therefore, with a low threshold and a high return possibility, the scratch-off lottery satisfies the expectation of and provides entertainment for the young people.

Nowadays, lottery stores are gradually appearing in supermarkets, subways, convenience stores and even flash stores to attract young people’s attention. Along with the booming supply and demand of lottery business are more lottery-related enterprises. As of July 10, 2023, the number of lottery-related companies reached more than 20,000, according to the business data search firm Tianyancha, an increase of 121.3% compared with 2012.

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