Saturday, December 16, 2000, updated at 11:07(GMT+8)
Business
Shanghai Residents Rush to Buy Welfare Lottery Tickets
Residents in China's largest industrial and commercial city of Shanghai have become conditioned to buying welfare lottery tickets on their way home -- from January to October of this year a record 1.04 billion yuan (1.25 million US dlrs) worth of welfare lottery ticket were sold.
Shanghai residents now buy one-sixth of the country's welfare lottery tickets, the latest statistics show.
So far this year 704 Shanghai residents have been lucky enough to win a prize, among which 19 people have won the top prize (5 million yuan or 600,000 US dlrs each) and 70 have won the first class prize (bellow 5 million yuan each).
According to the lottery administration, Shanghai has collected 150 million yuan (US$18 million) of welfare funds through issuing welfare lottery tickets, 40 percent of which went to a social welfare facilities fund, 30 percent to welfare development fund and the remaining 30 percent to a public benefit fund.
Residents in China's largest industrial and commercial city of Shanghai have become conditioned to buying welfare lottery tickets on their way home -- from January to October of this year a record 1.04 billion yuan (1.25 million US dlrs) worth of welfare lottery ticket were sold.