Education Essay Research Paper The Georgia Lottery

Education Essay, Research Paper

The Georgia Lottery Corporation The Georgia Lottery was created in November 1992 by the people of Georgia to enhance education funding. The Lottery for Education Act createdthe Georgia Lottery Corporation (GLC) to oversee and operate the lottery. Rebecca Paul was hired in February 1993 as president of the GLC, andfour months later, on June 29, the Georgia Lottery was launched. First-week sales of more than 52 million tickets set a new opening-week lotterysales record of $7.80 per capita. Within five months, the Lottery met its first-year sales goal of $463 million, and ended its first full year in operation with $1.1 billion in total sales. TheLottery’s first-year per capita sales of $164.81 set a new national record, surpassing the previous mark of $128 set by Florida in 1988, effectivelymaking the Georgia Lottery the most successful start-up state lottery ever. That success enabled the Georgia Lottery in its inaugural year to return $362 million to the state of Georgia for education — more than double the

original estimate. In its second year, the Georgia Lottery recorded $1.4 billion in total sales, with more than $500 million going to education. The Georgia Lottery continued to break industry trends by increasing sales in its third year. More importantly, the GLC’s contributions to the Lotteryfor Education Account, benefiting the students of Georgia, passed the $2 billion dollar mark in its fifth year. While the GLC’s function is to raisefunds for education projects, the revenue generated is allocated and distributed by the Governor and the General Assembly. Georgia Lottery Corporation proceeds are used to supplement, not supplant, traditional educational funding. According to a recent report issued bythe State Auditor, general fund appropriations to education have increased since the Lottery’s inception. Therefore, total state spending on educationhas increased significantly since the Lottery was started.