WORLD> America
Brazilian lotteries raise record $2.45 billion in 2008
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-01-14 15:35
RIO DE JANEIRO -- The Brazilian government's lotteries raised a record 5.7 billion reais (about $2.45 billion ) in 2008, up 10.5 percent from the previous year, the state-owned bank Caixa Economica Federal said Tuesday.

Lottery prizes totaled 1.76 billion reais (about $758 million) in 2008, and the number of winners was up 9.5 percent compared with 2007, said the bank, which administrates the lottery system.

Lottery "Mega-Sena" had the largest prizes, which totaled 714 million reais (about $307 million ).

The largest lottery prize last year was Mega-Sena's 53.1 million reais ($22.8 million ), paid in July to two winners. It was the third largest prize in the history of the Brazilian lotteries.

According to Caixa, the share of the lottery money distributed to social projects increased 6 percent in 2008.

From the total amount gathered last year, 2.72 billion reais ($1.17 billion ) were distributed to the federal government and non-governmental organizations such as the Brazilian Olympic Committee, the bank said.