China's lottery sales in the first eight months reached 84.62 billion yuan (US$12.44 billion), up 22.4 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Of the total sales, 48.33 billion yuan went to social welfare lottery, up 21.1 percent year on year.

About 36.29 billion yuan went to sports lottery, up 24.2 percent from a a year ago.

In August, lottery sales reached 11.06 billion yuan, of which 6.43 billion yuan went to social welfare lottery and 4.64 billion yuan went to sports lottery.

(Xinhua News Agency October 6, 2009)