China's lottery sales in October hit 32.7 billion yuan ($5.34 billion), up 20.3 percent year on year, the Finance Ministry said Thursday. In the first ten months of 2014, total lottery sales stood at 312.11 billion yuan, up 24 percent from a year earlier.
In the first four months, total lottery sales hit 111.56 billion yuan, up 14.3 percent from a year earlier.
The ministry said in a statement posted on its website that of the total, welfare lottery ticket sales reached 9.89 billion yuan, up 6.1 percent year-on-year, while sales of sports lottery tickets declined 1.8 percent from a year earlier to 6.57 billion yuan.
Welfare lottery sales reached 128.06 billion yuan from January to September, an increase of 15.3 percent year on year. Sports lottery sales during the three quarters rose 23 percent year on year to 96.40 billion yuan.Sports lottery sales in September rose 28.6 percent year on year to reach 11.16 billion yuan.
