China's lottery sales down 13% in March

BEIJING - China's lottery sales dropped 13 percent year-on-year to 34.95 billion yuan ($5.2 billion) in March, according to the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Sales of welfare lottery tickets went down 16.4 percent from a year ago to 16.5 billion yuan, while sports lottery sales slipped 9.7 percent to 18.4 billion yuan, the MOF said.

In the first three months, lottery sales reached 106.3 billion yuan, an increase of 2.1 percent over the same period last year.

Under China's lottery management rules, money from lottery ticket sales is used for administrative expenses, public welfare projects and prize money.

Six provincial-level regions posted year-on-year sales increases in March, with Sichuan, Anhui, Shanghai, Beijing and Yunnan leading the sales growth.

China's total lottery sales in 2018 stood at 511.47 billion yuan, up 19.9 percent year-on-year.