The state lottery has hit a milestone—four billion dollars raised for the state budget in its 25 years. About three-and-a-half billion dollars have gone direclty to public education under a law that went into effect for the 1993-94 fiscal year. In the first seven years, proceeds went into the state general revnue fund to be used for education or any other program the legislature wanted money for.
However state lottery director May Reardon says that three-and-a-half billion dollars is only a drop in the education funding bucket. Lottery profits only provide about 4.25% of the budget the elementary and secondary education department
State lottery income has hovered between 250-and-265-miliion dollars a year for the last six years.