The Chinese news agency Xinghua illustrated the power of China’s gambling market this week by reporting on the first quarter revenues for lotteries, which soared 24.5% between January and March 2010. Releasing the numbers, the Chinese Ministry of Finance revealed that the lotteries earned 34.62 billion yuan (US$ 5.07 billion).

Sales of the Welfare Lottery in the first quarter totaled 20.2 billion yuan (US$ 2.96 billion) while Sports Lottery sales amounted to 14.42 billion yuan (US$ 2.11 billion), both representing an increase of 24.5%, according to ministry statistics.

In March alone, lottery sales across the country rose 15.7% year on year to 13.25 billion yuan (US$ 1.94 billion).