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DEL.ICIO.USGeorgia lottery sets record
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A struggling economy hasn’t kept Georgians from buying lottery tickets.
The Georgia Lottery announced Tuesday that sales for fiscal 2008, which ended June 30, were just under $3.52 billion, a record in the 15-year history of the games.
That’s more than $97.6 million ahead of last year’s record sales.
The Georgia Lottery transferred $858 million of that to the state for education programs, surpassing last year’s record transfer by more than $4.8 million.
Lottery proceeds pay for the HOPE college scholarship program and pre-kindergarten classes for four-year-olds.
The rest of the sales money goes back into prizes and pays for advertising and administrative costs associated with running the lottery.
Gov. Sonny Perdue joined lottery officials at a news conference Tuesday morning announcing the sales and the fact that $10 billion has now been transferred from the lottery to the state for education programs over the past 15 years.
“The Georgia Lottery Corporation has a success formula that works and delivers results for Georgia’s students and families,” said Lottery Corp. CEO Margaret DeFrancisco. “Lottery-funded HOPE Scholarships and pre-K programs have made a fundamental difference in the lives of so many Georgians. The transfer of our $10 billionth dollar to education is a tremendous accomplishment that we can all celebrate.”
—James Salzer
Jim Galloway is out of town, but will return soon. If you’ve got news, pop an e-mail to our political team: editor Susan Abramson at sabramson@ajc.com; staffers Aaron Sheinin at asheinin@ajc.com; James Salzer at jsalzer@ajc.com; and Ben Smith at bsmith@ajc.com.
Comments
By Riffing w/RiffRaff
July 15, 2008 10:01 AM | Link to this
I guess hope springs eternal. When the going gets tough, the tough buy lottery tickets.
By Rodney S.
July 15, 2008 10:43 AM | Link to this
The people buying the bulk of the lottery tickets are doing it with money given to them by the government. So keep up the good work guys! People who work hard for their money are less inclined to give it away by buying lottery tickets.
By Happy in Conyers
July 15, 2008 10:45 AM | Link to this
Lets see if Purdue will actually put those funds towards Education. Education is usually last on his list.
By Richard
July 15, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this
It paid for my education and hopefully will pay for my kids. Keep on buying them!
By Bitter EX democrackkk
July 15, 2008 6:12 PM | Link to this
At least GA lootery is legal…the NC lootery got passed in the legislature in the dark of night when two dissenters were unavailable. If ONLY the NC lootery could BE so successful…