A LOTTERY entrant from northwestern China has won the country's largest individual lottery prize -- 102.7 million yuan (US$14 million), a newspaper reported yesterday.

The unidentified buyer from Gansu Province bought 20 identical "Double Color Ball" tickets issued by the China Welfare Lottery at a cost of 40 yuan Tuesday, the Southern Metropolis Daily said.

The buyer chose the same seven sets of two-digit numbers on each, reaping a total of 102.7 million yuan, the newspaper said.

First prize was more than 5 million yuan meaning the ticket holder was paid 20 times the top prize.

The man, around 40, drove to a lottery outlet in Jiayuguan City around 2:40 p.m. Tuesday, said Li Zhenjie, the outlet's owner.

Li said the man had been buying lottery tickets at the outlet for two years.

There was no official information on the winner.

The draw is held every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Two lottery machines pick out six of 33 red balls and one of 16 blue balls to determine the winning combination of numbers.

The former record jackpot was nearly 65 million yuan, won by a person in Heilongjiang Province in October. The person bought one combination of numbers 15 times, each bringing him the top award of 4.33 million yuan.

China abolished lotteries in 1949, but launched State-run lotteries in 1987.

The Welfare Lottery Center in Gansu, where farmers make an average of just over 2,000 yuan a year, was quick to head off a possible lottery-buying stampede the huge prize might trigger.

"The center's officials were glad to hear of such surprising news, but they would also like to remind lottery-ticket buyers that it is a recreation the State offers the people," said a statement on the lottery's official Web site.

"They hope everybody can take part in the game with a recreational, relaxed and normal attitude and buy rationally, taking into account their own financial means."

(SD-Agencies)