Lottery ticket sales in China hit a yearly high in August, up 50% from the same month in 2022 as the country's economic gloom persists.
According to data from China's Ministry of Finance, the country's lottery revenue in August reached nearly 53 billion yuan, equivalent to 7.25 billion USD.
This is the highest level since the beginning of this year and 53.6% higher than August 2022. In the first 8 months, China's lottery revenue reached more than 375 billion yuan, also an increase of more than 51% over the same period last year.
According to Reuters , the surge in lottery ticket sales coincided with months of negative economic data, notably unemployment. Data from the country's regulators showed that in June, China's youth unemployment rate hit a record high of 21.3%.
In response to this news, some opinions have emerged on social media in China that the sharp increase in lottery revenue in recent months is related to the increasingly deep economic concerns of young people.
"Young people are more likely to win 5 million yuan in the lottery than they are to earn this amount of money from working," one person wrote on social media Weibo.
The country’s statistics bureau also stopped publishing youth unemployment rates in August, explaining that the agency was looking to optimize its data collection methods. This also sparked a backlash on social media.
Tu Anh (according to Reuters)
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