China's first-quarter lottery sales rose 33.8 percent year-on-year to reach 46.31 billion yuan (about 7.09 billion U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Finance (MOF) announced Monday.

Sales of welfare lottery tickets in the first three months jumped 34.4 percent year-on-year to 27.15 billion yuan while sales of sports lottery tickets rose 32.9 percent year-on-year to 19.17 billion yuan.

In March alone, lottery sales reached 19.01 billion yuan, up 43.5 percent from the same period last year, the MOF said in a statement on its website.

According to China's Regulations on Lottery Management, funds generated through lotteries are divided into three parts: the jackpot, lottery management fees, and lottery public funds which should be spent as stipulated on financing social welfare causes.