BEIJING - Lottery sales in China rose 79 percent year-on-year in February to hit 20.21 billion yuan ($3.21 billion), the Ministry of Finance said in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday.

The ministry attributed the surge to more selling days this February, as last year's week-long Spring Festival holiday fell in February while this year's holiday was in January.

Welfare lottery ticket sales reached 11.77 billion yuan, up 79.4 percent year-on-year, and sales of sports lottery tickets rose 78.6 percent from a year earlier to 8.45 billion yuan.

Total lottery sales in January and February rose 34.3 percent year-on-year to 36.67 billion yuan.

The statement said the provinces of Jiangsu, Guangdong and Shandong saw the largest year-on-year rises in lottery sales in the first two months.