Georgia Lottery raises record profits for HOPE, Pre-K

ATLANTA – The Georgia Lottery Corp. today 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.

The Georgia Lottery is the only traditional lottery in the U.S. to experience 11 consecutive years of growth in profits.

“The lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship and Pre-K programs are more important than ever to Georgia’s families,” said Margaret DeFrancisco, president and CEO of the Georgia Lottery. “In these very challenging economic times, these are remarkable results by a remarkable group of lottery professionals who are fully committed to our mission of maximizing dollars for HOPE and Pre-K.”

The Georgia Lottery’s fiscal year 2010 first half spanned from July 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2009.

“To keep pace with the growing demands on HOPE and Pre-K, we continue to explore fresh and exciting ways to entertain our players and yield new revenue for education,” DeFrancisco said.

The Georgia Lottery’s newest initiative is the implementation of a monumental agreement to bring the multi-state big jackpot game Powerball to Georgia. Powerball tickets go on sale in Georgia on Jan. 31.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has returned more than $11.2 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.