2011-05-26 13:31

BEIJING -- China's April lottery sales rose 32.2 percent year-on-year to 18.65 billion yuan ($2.87 billion), the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced Thursday.

Sales of lottery tickets in the first four months of the year totaled 64.96 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.3 percent, the MOF said in a statement on its website.

In April alone, sales of welfare lottery tickets went up 30.8 percent year-on-year to 10.59 billion yuan, and sales of sports lottery tickets rose 34.2 percent year-on-year to 8.06 billion yuan, the statement said.

The surge in sales has come as new quiz-type lottery games have gone on sale in about 30 provinces, along with the expansion of trial sales of the welfare lottery's online games, it said.

According to China's Regulations on Lottery Management, the money raised through lotteries is divided into three parts: the jackpot, lottery management fees and lottery public funds.