BEIJING - China plans to sell 600 billion yuan ($91 billion) worth of welfare lotteries from 2011 to 2015, up 73.6 percent from the past five years, an official from the Welfare Lottery Distribution and Management Center (WLDMC) has said.

The sales of welfare lotteries posted an annual increase of 18.7 percent over the past five years, from 41.2 billion yuan in 2006 to 96.8 billion in 2010, the official said.

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The sales totalled 345.53 billion yuan from 2006 to 2010.

The center believed that there would be broad prospect for welfare lottery sales with the increase of people's income and the development of philanthropy.

According to China's Regulations on Lottery Management, money raised through lotteries is divided into three parts: the jackpot, lottery management fees, and lottery public funds.

The government-run lottery raised a total of 30 billion yuan for public welfare funds in 2010, according to the WLDMC statistics.

The WLDMC is administered by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, which was authorized by the State Council, or China's Cabinet, to raise welfare funds through lottery sales in 1987.