China lottery sales up 25.2 percent in September

China's lottery sales rose 25.2 percent to 32.25 billion yuan ($5.3 billion) in September, with sports lottery sales continuing to lead.
Sales of welfare lottery tickets rose 19.6 percent year on year to 17.47 billion yuan last month, while sports lottery sales rose 32.5 percent to 14.78 billion yuan, the Ministry of Finance said.
In the first nine months of 2014, total lottery sales stood at 279.4billion yuan, up 24.5 percent from a year earlier.
The September figures were a slight slowdown from the gains in August, when Chinese bet 31.5 billion yuan, 28.1 percent more than a year ago.
In June and July sales soared, as the FIFA World Cup drove a betting frenzy. July sales were up 52.7 percent with Sports Lottery sales almost doubling to RMB19.8 billion.