In China, March ticket sales for its official lottery systems saw a 2.9% spike, with revenue growth for Q1 sales of 9.4% year-on-year.

GGRAsia reports that according to China’s Ministry of Finance, aggregate ticket sales of CNY40 billion (US$6.34 billion) for the month of March were registered for the East Asia nation’s two lotteries: the China Sports Lottery and the China Welfare Lottery.

Sales of CNY104.18 billion for the aforementioned were reported for the first full quarter of the year, with welfare lottery ticket sales for Q1 seeing a 1.8% hike to CNY52.25 billion. Sports lottery sales, meanwhile, saw an increase of 18.3% to CNY51.93 billion.

From January through March this year, central China’s Hunan province led year-on-year growth registering CNY1.42 billion.
Revenue from the sales of lottery tickets reportedly covers public welfare projects, administrative fees and prize money, per lottery management laws.

While under Chinese law gambling is illegal in China, residents can partake in state-operated lotteries and in gambling that is legal in the special administrative regions of Macau and Hong Kong.