China's lottery sales in April increased to 32.6 billion yuan ($5.33 billion), up 3.4 percent year on year, Chinese state media reported.
Citing official data from the Finance Ministry, Xinhua reported that Welfare lottery sales increased by 2.2 percent to reach 18.1 billion yuan, while sales from the sports lottery rose 5 percent to 14.5 billion yuan.
Combined lottery sales in the first four months of this year amounted to 127.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.2 percent.
Under lottery management rules, money from ticket sales must cover administrative fees and public welfare projects, as well as the jackpot.
A total of 382 billion yuan was spent on lottery tickets in 2014, up 23.6 percent from 2013.
Earlier in April, the MOF banned unauthorized online lottery sales due to the proliferation of unauthorized online sellers.
Lottery company 500.com said in April it had not generated any revenue that month due to the ban.
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