Local areas benefiting from record lotto dollars

Local News

March 20, 2010

From Staff Reports

AMERICUS — The Georgia Lottery Corp. recently announced record first-half profits for education. Georgia Lottery profits for the first half of fiscal year 2010 totaled $429,754,000, surpassing the previous record set last fiscal year by more than $8.49 million.

Sumter County students, families and citizens have benefited greatly from the Georgia Lottery’s success with the Georgia Lottery as the only traditional lottery in the U.S. to experience 11 consecutive years of growth in profits.

In Sumter County since the Georgia Lottery’s inception in 1993, 2,060 university system students have received more than $11.9 million from Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program; 216 private college and university students have received more than $958,000 from HOPE; and 6,467 technical college students have received more than $13.8 million from HOPE.

More than $17.9 million has gone to Sumter County schools for Georgia’s Pre-K Program, benefiting 4,126 students.

The county has received an additional $5.6 million for capital outlay and technology initiatives.

Sumter County businesses also have benefited with local lottery retailers earning more than $12.1 million in commissions.

Lucky Sumter County residents have won more than $100.3 million.

Many of those dollars have been reinvested into Georgia’s economy.

The Georgia Lottery’s success story is one that all Georgians can celebrate.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has returned more than $11.4 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 Pre-K Program.

More than 1.2 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.

For more information, visit www.galottery.com.