BEIJING - Lottery sales in China rose 24 percent year-on-year in March to hit 23.58 billion yuan ($3.75 billion), the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Tuesday.

Welfare lottery ticket sales amounted to 13.64 billion yuan in March, up 21.1 percent from a year ago, while sales of sports lottery tickets gained 28.3 percent year-on-year to 9.9 billion yuan.

In the first three months, total lottery sales jumped 30.1 percent year-on-year to 60.25 billion yuan, according to the MOF data.