The two state-backed lotteries in China reportedly bucked five consecutive months of comparable downturns in July after recording an increase of 10.4% year-on-year in aggregated ticket sales to just over ¥36.14 billion ($5.29 billion).

According to a report from GGRAsia citing official data from the giant country’s Ministry of Finance, the figure for the 31-day month represented a rise of almost ¥3.42 billion ($501 million) when compared with the combined tally for the same period in 2019 and broke a descending trend that began in February following the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic.

Pair’s performance:

July sales for the China Welfare Lottery rose by 2.6% year-on-year to just below ¥15.44 billion ($2.25 billion) while its compatriot China Sports Lottery experienced an even brighter 17.1% boost to book monthly receipts slightly in excess of ¥20.71 billion ($3.03 billion).

Nationwide resurgence:

July reportedly saw lottery sales improve in 28 of China’s 31 provinces with Guangdong Province once again leading the way courtesy of a ¥481 million ($70.38 million) comparable swell that was complemented by ¥465 million ($68.04 million) and ¥226 million ($33.07 million) upturns from Jiangsu Province and Shaanxi Province respectively.

Long-term lag:

Finally, the source detailed that the July figures took combined seven-month sales for the China Welfare Lottery and China Sports Lottery to about ¥160.05 billion ($23.42 billion), which equates to a disappointing slide of 34.8% year-on-year, with the former’s performance standing some 33.8% lower at roughly ¥74.72 billion ($10.93 billion) but better than the 35.6% drop recorded by the latter to approximately ¥85.33 billion ($12.48 billion).