China's lottery sales in the first seven months reached 73.56 billion yuan (10.77 billion U.S. dollars), up 21.2 percent or 12.89 billion yuan from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Of the total sales, 41.91 billion yuan went to social welfare lottery,

up 6.35 billion yuan or 17.9 percent year on year.

About 31.65 billion yuan went to sports lottery, up 6.54 billion yuan or 26.0 percent year on year.

In July, sales of lottery reached 10.78 billion yuan, of which 6.22 billion yuan went to social welfare lottery and 4.57 billion yuan went to sports lottery.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2009)