Sales of welfare lottery in China have exceeded 70 billion yuan (US$10.2 billion) so far this year, according to the Welfare Lottery Distribution and Management Center.

The sales represent a 17 percent increase from the whole year of 2008, the center has said.

After paying back for prizes, the lottery raised a total of 23.09 billion yuan for public welfare, 3 billion yuan more than in2008.

China has raised 135.6 billion yuan for public welfare from welfare lottery since it was launched in 1987, financing over 150,000 social welfare projects good and benefiting tens of millions people.

(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2009)