China lottery sales fall in 2015 on slumping economy and online suspension

China’s lottery sales fell 3.8% in 2015, dragged down by both the sputtering economy and the suspension of online sales.

According to figures released Thursday by the Ministry of Finance, 2015’s total lottery sales fell 3.8% year-on-year to RMB 367.9b (US $55.9b). Although the year-on-year decline is disappointing, 2015’s figure is still well above 2013’s RMB 309b total.

Welfare lottery sales were down 2.2% in 2015 to RMB 201.5b while sports lottery sales – which got an extra boost in 2014 from the FIFA World Cup – were off 5.7% to RMB 166.4b.

The slowdown in China’s economic growth gets most of the blame for the annual shortfall, although the ‘temporary’ suspension of online sales Beijing imposed in March 2015 has also taken a bite. Although China had only approved two operators to participate in an online sales pilot program, mainstream sites like Alibaba had launched their own online platforms, all of which were forced offline.