BEIJING, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- China's lottery ticket sales surged by 56.6 percent from a year ago to top 51.84 billion yuan (about 7.44 billion U.S. dollars) in November, driven by strong sales of sports lottery tickets, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.
Lottery tickets sold to support the sports industry jumped 94.6 percent year on year to nearly 38.77 billion yuan, as the 2022 FIFA World Cup opened in late November, according to the ministry.
Sales of lottery tickets to support the welfare system came in at 13.08 billion yuan last month, a decrease of 0.8 percent from a year ago.
In the first 11 months of 2022, China's lottery ticket sales stood at 362.8 billion yuan -- up 6.4 percent compared with the same period last year -- the data showed.
Under China's lottery management rules, funds raised from ticket sales are used for administrative expenses, public welfare projects and to fund prizes. ■
