Welfare lottery sales hit 1.2 tln over 6 years

BEIJING, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The total sales of China's welfare lottery tickets hit over 1.23 trillion yuan (183.7 billion U.S. dollars) between 2013 and 2018, official data said.

More than 351.6 billion yuan of public welfare funds have been raised through the sales, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The ministry said China currently has 5,570 registered charity organizations and 1,507 of them are entitled to raise funds from the public.

The ministry said online charity saw growing involvement last year, with over 8.4 billion social media visits and follows or people participating in such programs.