Georgia Lottery breaks sales record

Georgia Lottery breaks sales record, raising more dollars than ever for education



ATLANTA – The Georgia Lottery Corporation continues to blaze a trail as one of the highest performing lotteries in the world, announcing record-breaking sales and proceeds to education for the first half of fiscal year 2008. According to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, Georgia's lottery is one of only two traditional U.S. lotteries to increase annual profits in each of the last nine years.

Georgia Lottery proceeds to education for the first half of fiscal year 2008 totaled $417,427,000 – surpassing the record set in the first half of last fiscal year by more than $16.9 million.

Georgia Lottery sales for the first half of fiscal year 2008 soared to $1,693,837,400 – more than $133 million ahead of the record set in the first half of fiscal year 2007.

This makes the first six months of fiscal year 2008 the most successful start in Georgia Lottery history and brings the total raised for educational programs in the state of Georgia to more than $9.7 BILLION since the lottery's inception in 1993.

"Our team is completely dedicated to our mission to maximize revenues for education in Georgia," said Georgia Lottery Corporation President and CEO Margaret DeFrancisco. "We have a successful formula that works and delivers results for Georgia's HOPE and Pre-K students."

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has returned over $9.7 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs including Georgia's HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia's Prekindergarten Program. More than 1 million students have received HOPE, and more than 850,000 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.