A Chinese woman walks past a sales office of the China Welfare lottery and the China Sports lottery in Yichang, Hubei province,?China, May 26, 2014.[Photo/IC]

BEIJING - China's lottery sales rose 10.4 percent year on year to 31.53 billion yuan ($5.11 billion) in April, latest government data showed on Tuesday.

Sales of welfare lottery tickets rose 13.4 percent to 17.7 billion yuan last month while sports lottery sales stood at 13.83 billion yuan, up 6.8 percent year on year, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

In the first four months, total lottery sales hit 111.56 billion yuan, up 14.3 percent from a year earlier.

In 2013, total lottery sales topped 309 billion yuan, up 18.3 percent year on year, the ministry's data showed.