The Chinese news agency Xinhua reports that the nation’s main lottery, the Welfare Lottery, achieved officially confirmed sales of 205.96 billion yuan ($33.6 billion) in 2014, up 16.67 percent year-on-year.
The lottery contributed over 57 billion yuan to public welfare funds, according to the China Welfare Lottery Issuing and Management Centre. The majority of money allocated to the public welfare fund covers social insurance programs, poverty relief, initiatives for the disabled as well as donations to other charity projects.