California Lottery Report: $3.3 Billion in Sales

01/09/2008 California Lottery Report: $3.3 Billion in Sales, $1.7 Billion in Prizes

SACRAMENTO It’s been another strong year for the California Lottery. That’s the report today from Lottery Director Joan Borucki to the Lottery Commission.
Borucki presented the 2006-07 Lottery Report to the Public , as well as the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report ).

The California Lottery returned more than 95 cents of every dollar to the community in the form of contributions to education, prizes and retail commissions, said Borucki. We proudly distributed more than $1 billion to our friends in the education community amounting to more than 1 percent of the state’s education budget. We are honored to be a small part of every student’s life and look forward to the opportunity to create new revenues in the coming year.
Total lottery sales for the year were more than $3.3 billion. That sales figure is slightly less than the year before, but Lottery officials reiterated their long-term strategy to grow sales as presented in the Business Plan in June 2007.
The Lottery provided more than $1.7 billion in winnings to players, said Borucki. Retailers earned nearly $234 million in compensation.

The California Lottery contributes at least 34 cents of every dollar that players spend on Lottery products to public education and returns more than 50 percent of sales to players in the form of prizes. Since its inception in 1985, the Lottery has contributed more than $20 billion to California schools out of total sales of more than $54.8 billion. Retailers benefit as well, earning $3.5 billion in compensation since 1985.