A struggling economy hasn't kept Georgians from buying lottery tickets.
The Georgia Lottery announced Tuesday that sales for fiscal 2008, which ended June 30, were just under $3.52 billion, a record in the 15-year history of the games.
That's more than $97.6 million ahead of last year's record sales.
The Georgia Lottery transferred $858 million of that to the state for education programs, surpassing last year's record transfer by more than $4.8 million.
Lottery proceeds pay for the HOPE college scholarship program and pre-kindergarten classes for four-year-olds.
The rest of the sales money goes back into prizes and pays for advertising and administrative costs associated with running the lottery.
Gov. Sonny Perdue joined lottery officials at a news conference Tuesday morning announcing the sales and the fact that $10 billion has now been transferred from the lottery to the state for education programs over the past 15 years.
"The Georgia Lottery Corporation has a success formula that works and delivers results for Georgia's students and families," said Lottery Corp. CEO Margaret DeFrancisco. "Lottery-funded HOPE Scholarships and pre-K programs have made a fundamental difference in the lives of so many Georgians. The transfer of our $10 billionth dollar to education is a tremendous accomplishment that we can all celebrate."
Clear demonstration people have confidence in what they can see ..... live ball-in-machine drawings .... performed 3 times a day by real breathing people. Doesn't get any better than that!
Last year the Georgia legislators questioned the bonuses given to lottery officials after record sales and record profits. Records were set again this year so it looks like the bonuses are justified.