China Welfare Lottery may record one of the largest first prizes this Wednesday.
According to China News Service, the first prize for the latest edition of the lottery reached over RMB700 million ($99 million), while a winning bet of RMB680 million ($97 million) was sold at the same outlet in Guizhou Province.
The number of first-prize-winning bets reached 136, which means the winning amount for a single bet was about RMB5.2 million ($727,000). Among them, 134 were from Guizhou. The Chinese media suggests that a majority of the winning bets may have been purchased by the same person, which means the winner may monopolize a huge prize of more than $97 million.
According to official data, China’s total lottery sales amounted to RMB579.7 billion ($82 billion) in 2023, up 36.5 percent from 2022.
Sales of the welfare lottery reached RMB194.44 billion ($27.3 billion) last year, an increase of 31.3 percent from the previous year.
Sports Lottery sales grew by 39.3 percent year on year to about RMB385.26 billion ($54.2 billion).
