China's 2016 lottery sales up 7.3%

BEIJING - China's lottery sales rose 7.3 percent year-on-year to 394.64 billion yuan (about $57.53 billion) in 2016, official data showed on Monday.

Welfare lottery sales increased by 2.5 percent to 206.49 billion yuan, and the sports lottery rose 13.1 percent to 188.15 billion yuan, the Ministry of Finance announced.

In December, lottery tickets worth 36.59 billion yuan were sold, a year-on-year increase of 7.2 percent. Welfare lottery sales rose 4 percent to 19.98 billion yuan and sports lottery sales rose 11.4 percent to 16.61 billion yuan.

The provinces of Guangdong, Hubei, Hunan, Henan and Yunnan each saw their lottery sales value rise by more than 2 billion yuan.

The revenues are used to cover administrative fees as well as the jackpot, and the rest is used to improve social welfare and sports facilities.