Lottery ticket sales in Vietnam’s southern region surpassed VND35 trillion (US$1.5 billion) in the first quarter of this year, up nearly 22 percent year on year, according to the Southern Lottery Council.

The region managed to consume over 98 percent of available lottery tickets, the Council said.

Among the Council’s 21 member companies, 14 saw this consumption rate hit 100 percent in Soc Trang, Ben Tre, Bac Lieu, Tay Ninh, and An Giang Provinces.

Payouts in the southern region topped VND17 trillion ($727 million) in Q1.

Lottery business activities in the south remained stable and maintained high growth rates buoyed by overall favorable conditions, including the Ministry of Finance’s permission to increase the lottery prize values, despite a number of socio-economic uncertainties, according to Do Quang Vinh, general director of Ho Chi Minh City Lottery Company and chairman of the Southern Lottery Council.

Lottery businesses in the south contributed more than VND12 trillion ($513 million) to the state budget and spent over VND30 billion ($1.2 million) on social welfare initiatives.

High lottery ticket sales could be attributed to cultural habits in the southern region, where 4,000-6,000 lottery ticket vendors roam the streets and make daily visits to eateries and coffee shops.

The Southern Lottery Council said it would seek approval from the Ministry of Finance to hike its lottery prize values starting from October 1 this year, as well as ask its member companies to speed up efforts to stabilize sales.

If high ticket sales remain the norm for the rest of the year, southern region residents will have spent $6 billion on lottery tickets by the end of 2023.

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