How much does lottery benefit Georgia education?

Dec 18, 2013

Two lucky winners matched all six numbers in Tuesday night’s near-record Mega Millions jackpot, including one player who purchased the winning ticket in Buckhead. The winnings are big for those two, and for Georgia’s education programs.

Since its inception more than two decades ago, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has paid out more than $8 billion in lottery proceeds to fund 1.6 million HOPE Scholarship awards. Another $5 billion in lottery proceeds have funded Pre-K slots for 1.3 million four-year-olds.

Here's an example of lottery proceeds to Georgia's education programs:

Lottery jackpot (date)	Mega Millions, Dec. 17, 2013	Powerball, Nov. 28, 2012
Jackpot amount	$636 million	$579.9 million
Cumulative Georgia sales	more than $36 million	more than $42.3 million
Contribution to Georgia education programs	$14 million	$16.9 million
HOPE awards funded	4,900 awards	9,171 awards
Pre-K spots funded	1,300 slots	1,593 slots