Govt unveils 5-year lottery sales push

The country hopes to sell 600 billion yuan ($91 billion) worth of welfare lottery tickets from 2011 to 2015, up 73.6 percent from the past five years, an official from the Welfare Lottery Distribution and Management Center has said.
The sales of welfare lotteries posted an annual increase of 18.7 percent over the past five years, from 41.2 billion yuan ($6.25 billion) in 2006 to 96.8 billion ($14.68 billion) in 2010, the official said.
The sales totaled 345.53 billion yuan ($52.42 billion) from 2006 to 2010.
The welfare lottery center believed that there would be broad prospect for welfare lottery sales with the increase of people's income and the development of philanthropy.
According to China's Regulations on Lottery Management, money raised through lotteries is divided into three parts: the jackpot, lottery management fees and lottery public funds.
The government-run lottery raised a total of 30 billion yuan ($4.55 billion) for public welfare funds in 2010, according to the Welfare Lottery Distribution and Management Center statistics.
The center is administered by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which was authorized by the State Council or cabinet, to raise welfare funds through lottery sales in 1987.