China's lottery ticket sales up in January

BEIJING, March 5 (Xinhua) -- China's lottery ticket sales showed a year-on-year increase of 7.8 percent in January, topping 33.22 billion yuan (about 4.81 billion U.S. dollars) for the month, mainly driven by strong sales of sports lottery tickets, data from the Ministry of Finance shows.

Sales of lottery tickets to support the welfare system came in at 10.84 billion yuan in January, representing a decrease of 22.4 percent from the previous year.

Lottery tickets sold to support the sports sector rose 5.54 billion yuan, or 32.9 percent year on year, to 22.38 billion yuan.

Under China's lottery management rules, funds raised from ticket sales are used for administrative expenses, public welfare projects and to fund prizes.