The global regulated lottery and sports betting ecosystem recorded at least USD 441.1 billion in sales in FY 2024, the World Lottery Association reports. The picture since then splits by market. American ticket sales fell, Chinese sales grew, and UK returns to good causes dropped 22.2% in the April to June 2026 quarter. Every figure below carries its source and its exact period.
Lottery Market Statistics 2026
How Big Is the Global Lottery Market in 2026?
The World Lottery Association counts more than 200 state-regulated lottery and sports betting entities across over 100 states and territories. Its own 165 regular members span 89 states and territories.
The FY 2024 figures below mix draw games, instants, sports betting and other regulated products, so they are wider than lottery ticket sales alone. The regulated ecosystem sits apart from commercial casino groups such as Genting, which are not part of this count.
| Measure (FY 2024) | WLA regular members | Full regulated ecosystem |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | $397.6 billion | $441.1 billion |
| Returned to good causes | $94.8 billion | $109.0 billion |
| Operators counted | 165 | 200+ |
Source: World Lottery Association, Annual Review 2025, FY 2024 data
Lottery Market Statistics 2026 by Country: China
China sold 627.97 billion yuan of lottery tickets in 2025, up 0.7% on 2024, according to the Ministry of Finance. Sports lottery agencies took 419.39 billion yuan of that, up 0.9%, while welfare lottery agencies sold 208.58 billion yuan, up 0.3%.
Instant tickets were the only one of the four published categories to grow, rising 13.0%. Sports-guessing games fell 3.2% but still held the largest share.
| Game type | 2025 sales (yuan) | Change vs 2024 | Share of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sports-guessing | 277.75 billion | -3.2% | 44.2% |
| Lotto and numbers | 177.70 billion | -0.7% | 28.3% |
| Instant | 131.15 billion | +13.0% | 20.9% |
| Keno | 41.36 billion | -0.9% | 6.6% |
Source: Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China, national lottery sales, January to December 2025. Video-type lottery sales of 3.29 million yuan are reported by the ministry on a separate line and sit outside these four shares.
What Changed in the First Half of 2026?
Sales reached 326.87 billion yuan from January to June 2026, up 2.8% year on year. June alone brought in 75.98 billion yuan, up 39.5%, which the Ministry of Finance attributes mainly to football World Cup fixtures lifting sports-guessing sales.
The two agency networks moved in opposite directions over the half year. Welfare lottery sales fell 6.6% to 100.09 billion yuan while sports lottery sales rose 7.6% to 226.79 billion yuan.
How Much Do US Lotteries Sell?
American lotteries reported $96.17 billion in traditional game sales in FY 2025, down 5.1%, NASPL data shows. Counting net revenue from gaming machines, table games and sports betting, the grand total came to $109.38 billion, down 3.6%.
Draw games carried the decline, falling 13.8% to $31.76 billion. Powerball sales dropped 49.6% and Mega Millions 22.0%. NASPL points to the two national games, noting just one jackpot above $1 billion in the July 2024 to June 2025 window.
Instant tickets barely moved, down 0.7% to $62.80 billion, and their share of traditional sales climbed to 65.3%, the highest since FY 2022. Daily numbers games, the two-to-five-digit draws that include Pick 3 in New Jersey, slipped 1.0% to $11.82 billion.
Which States Lead US Lottery Sales in 2026?
Florida topped traditional game sales in FY 2025 at $9.1 billion, ahead of California at $8.9 billion. New York led on all sales combined with more than $10.2 billion, $2.4 billion of which was net revenue from video lottery terminals.
Nine US jurisdictions now run video lottery terminals or slots through their lottery organisations, and 12 operate or regulate sports betting. That places state lotteries in the same product territory as commercial operators such as MGM Resorts International and Las Vegas Sands.
Canada moved the other way. Its four sales-reporting lotteries recorded C$8.35 billion in traditional game sales in FY 2025, up 0.6%, helped by a 17.5% rise in Lotto Max.
Where Does Lottery Money Go?
US lotteries transferred $28.4 billion to their beneficiaries in FY 2025, down 7.1%. New York sent the most at $3.58 billion, followed by Florida at $2.16 billion, California at $1.93 billion and Texas at $1.81 billion.
Over a longer window, prize money has grown faster than the states’ own take. Census Bureau survey data puts prizes at 118% above their FY 2008 level by FY 2024, against a 68% rise in net revenue.
| US state lotteries | FY 2008 | FY 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Ticket sales | $52.8 billion | $104.7 billion |
| Prizes paid | $32.2 billion | $70.2 billion |
| Net lottery revenue | $20.6 billion | $34.5 billion |
Source: US Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State Government Finances, fiscal years 2008 and 2024
Virginia paid out 80% of ticket sales in prizes in FY 2024, the largest share of any state, with Kentucky next at 75%. Five states run no lottery at all: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah.
UK Lottery Market Statistics 2026
The National Lottery paid £377.2 million to good causes in the quarter running April to June 2026, the Gambling Commission reports. That is 22.2% below the same quarter a year earlier and 15.6% below the previous quarter.
Total National Lottery sales fell £261.0 million, or 12.5%, against Q1 2025 to 2026. EuroMillions accounted for £169.9 million of the drop and interactive instant win games for £42.6 million.
The last four quarters produced £1.7 billion for good causes. Since November 1994 the total stands at over £53 billion.
Who Plays the Lottery?
The Gambling Survey for Great Britain 2025 found 47% of participants aged 18 and over gambled in the past four weeks. Strip out those who only played lottery draws and the figure drops to 27%.
The survey covered 20,775 adults using a push-to-web method, with fieldwork from January 2025 to January 2026. More people gambled online (38%) than in person (28%), a gap the Gambling Commission says is accounted for by online lottery ticket purchases.
The most common reasons the survey recorded for gambling were the chance of winning big money (84%) and because gambling is fun (69%). Respondents could pick more than one reason, so those shares overlap and cannot be added.
Online Lottery Sales and iLottery in 2026
Fourteen US lotteries ran an iLottery platform by the end of FY 2025, after West Virginia launched in October 2024 and Kansas in February 2025. Net revenue from eInstant games rose 29.8% to $1.30 billion.
Virginia led on eInstants with $360 million in net revenue, up 16.3%, with North Carolina close behind at $329.2 million in its first full year. Online draw game sales went the other way, falling 6.3% to just under $1.5 billion as the national jackpot games slumped.
NASPL standardises eInstant reporting as net revenue after prizes, so these figures are not directly comparable with gross ticket sales elsewhere in the same tables. The channel itself now sits inside the broader online gaming sector.
FAQs
How big is the global lottery market in 2026?
The World Lottery Association reported at least $441.1 billion in FY 2024 sales across the global regulated lottery and sports betting ecosystem. Its own 165 regular members accounted for $397.6 billion of that total.
Which country sells the most lottery tickets?
China. The Ministry of Finance recorded 627.97 billion yuan in national lottery sales for 2025, up 0.7%. US traditional lottery sales were $96.17 billion in FY 2025.
Reddit threads often say lottery sales are collapsing. Are they?
It depends on the market. US traditional sales fell 5.1% in FY 2025, while China’s rose 0.7% in 2025 and 2.8% in the first half of 2026. UK sales fell 12.5% year on year in Q1 2026 to 2027.
How much do US lotteries hand to their beneficiaries?
$28.4 billion in FY 2025, down 7.1% from FY 2024. New York transferred the most at $3.58 billion, ahead of Florida at $2.16 billion and California at $1.93 billion.
Do Reddit debates about scratch-offs versus jackpot games match the data?
Largely. Instant scratch games took 65.3% of US traditional lottery sales in FY 2025, their highest share since FY 2022, while Powerball fell 49.6% and Mega Millions 22.0%.
Sources
https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/statistics-and-research/publication/funds-raised-for-good-causes-q1-2026-to-2027-official-statistics
https://www.nasplinsights.com/post/a-challenging-year-with-an-asterisk
http://zhs.mof.gov.cn/zonghexinxi/202601/t20260128_3982699.htm
https://publications.world-lotteries.org/annual-reviews/wla-infographics-annual-review-2025
