In every economy, there will be lottery sales because people like winning money. However if the economy is not as good as it was, lottery sales increase because winning a lottery gives people hope. The odds of winning did not change, but the need for hope increases.

In an article from Reuters, China’s lottery sales in August soared to their highest level for any month this year amid mostly gloomy data about the economy.

Nationwide lottery tickets jumped 53.6% in August to 52.96 billion yuan (roughly $10 billion), the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing data from the finance ministry.

Youth unemployment has increased to a level China’s statistics bureau abruptly stopped reporting the number. The reason given the agency sought to optimize its data collection methodology.

One commentator on Weibo said the worse the economy is, the more lottery tickets will be sold.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, rather than buy the lottery ticket, the opportunity is to buy stock in the company that prints the lottery tickets. The demand increases more lottery tickets are sold and the company receives increasing revenues. In all cycles of the economy there will be companies that benefit, it is the investors job to find the companies that continue to do well no mater what the cycle is.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.