BEIJING - China's welfare lottery sales has exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($163 billion) since it was launched in 1987, the lottery watchdog said Tuesday.

About 310 billion yuan has been raised through the welfare lottery, a major lottery type in China, helping fund over 300,000 charity projects and benefit hundreds of millions of people, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

So far the welfare lottery industry employs more than 400,000 people and has created a tax revenue of over 20 billion yuan, according to the ministry.

It has also promoted the development of industries including information technology, finance, printing and advertisement, it said.

In February this year, sales of welfare lottery tickets rose 18.9 percent year on year to 11.76 billion yuan.

Total lottery sales topped 309 billion yuan last year, up 18.3 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Finance.