More than half of South Koreans bought a lottery ticket at least once last year, a survey showed Wednesday.

According to the survey conducted by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, 56.5 percent of 1,000 respondents answered that they have had experience with tombola games last year.

A lottery buyer purchases an average of 14.2 tickets per year, or once every four weeks, the survey showed.

More than 93 percent of them say they spend less than 10,000 won in buying a lottery ticket. The findings showed 70 percent of people who bought tickets are from households with an average monthly income of 3.47 million.

The poll also revealed that 68.1 percent held positive views of the lottery, up 5.2 percentage points from a year earlier.

They cited that the lottery supports needy people by giving them hope and stimulating their interest in life.

A total of 3.3 trillion won worth of lottery tickets was sold in 2014, up 1.5 percent from 3.2 trillion won a year ago, according to separate government data. (Yonhap)