French President Emmanuel Macron has launched a National Lottery, created to fund heritage and art restoration projects across the country.

The lottery was announced in December last year, with the tickets expected to generate up to €20m (US$23.8m, £17.6m) a year. Players can buy tickets for a €13m (US$15.2m, £11.4m) jackpot, or a scratch card with a top prize of €1.5m (US$1.75m, £1.3m).

The funds have already been allocated to 18 sites of historic, religious, architectural and cultural importance across France, including an island fort in Brittany, a Roman aqueduct near Lyon and a disused sugar refinery on the French overseas territory of Mayotte.

France's government recently increased public funding for monuments by 5 per cent, rising to €326m (US$388.5m, £287.9m) a year for the next five years. Of that sum, €15m (US$17.9m, £13.2m) has been earmarked specifically for smaller sites in villages of 2,000 or fewer people.

Government spending on France’s heritage has dropped significantly since 2010, with the figure falling by more than 40 per cent.

The lottery will be held in September for a limited period and repeated the following year. Françoise Nyssen, France’s minister for culture, said that the initiative would address some of the funding shortfall.