Lottery sales in China increased 26.4 percent year-on-year in April to reach 23.58 billion yuan (3.73 billion U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Tuesday.

Welfare lottery ticket sales amounted to 13.35 billion yuan in April, up 26.1 percent from a year ago, while sales of sports lottery tickets gained 26.8 percent year-on-year to 10.22 billion yuan.

The April figure raised total lottery sales in the first four months by 29 percent year-on-year to 83.83 billion yuan, according to the MOF data.