Lottery sales in China rose 79 percent year on year in February to hit 20.21 billion yuan (3.21 billion U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Finance said in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday.

The ministry attributed the surge to more selling days this February, as last year's week-long Spring Festival holiday fell in February while this year's holiday was in January.

Welfare lottery ticket sales reached 11.77 billion yuan, up 79.4 percent year on year, and sales of sports lottery tickets rose 78.6 percent from a year earlier to 8.45 billion yuan.

Total lottery sales in January and February rose 34.3 percent year on year to 36.67 billion yuan.

The statement said the provinces of Jiangsu, Guangdong and Shandong saw the largest year-on-year rises in lottery sales in the first two months.