The sport lottery ticket management center of China’s State Sport General Administration announced Friday that China will increase the sum of sport lottery tickets issued to raise funds for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“Authorized by the Ministry of Finance, we will issue two types of Olympic lottery tickets, the existing computerized sport lottery tickets and new card lottery tickets,” said the newly-appointed director of the center, Sun Jinfang Friday.
An extra one billion yuan (US$120 million) will be added to the original sport lottery ticket issue this year, Sun said.
Sun also noted that the Olympic lottery draw would work in conjunction with the original sports lottery, using the same channels for distribution, fund proportions, sales methods and management system.
Thirty percent of funds collected from the issue of computerized sport lottery tickets will continue to be invested in facilities related to the Olympics, sources from the center said.
Since 1994, more than 2.3 billion yuan (US$280 million) has been collected from the lottery to help with the construction of Olympic sports facilities.
(Xinhua News Agency 07/21/2001)
