STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Before the winning ticket for this past week’s record-breaking Powerball jackpot worth $2.04 billion was sold in California, the country was in a bit of a lottery frenzy, with millions of tickets sold. But just how do states spend the money earned via the lottery system? A recent study analyzed those areas that bring in the most lottery money and how they spend the funds.
New York State generates the most lottery revenue, making it the largest and most profitable in North America, according to data compiled by OddsSeeker and posted on the journalism website Stacker. The study showed that in the fiscal year 2021-2022, New York garnered $3.6 billion in lottery ticket revenue.
All the money goes to the New York’s public K-12 schools, as dictated by the state constitution.
Larger, lower-income school districts receive proportionally larger shares of the finds. New York City received $1.26 billion, which is the largest amount given for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, according to data.
The New York Lottery has earned $78.7 billion since 1967 for education across the state, Stacker reported.
The following states do not sell lottery tickets: Alabama, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii and Nevada.
Here is lottery data for various states, as produced by OddsSeeker and Stacker.
SPECIAL OLYMPICS AND MORE
Illinois is the only state that earmarks lottery ticket funds for the Special Olympics.
More than $7 million has been raised so far. Special Olympics Illinois helps train 20,500 athletes throughout the state and offers competition in 18 sports annually.
Most of the lottery earnings, $834 million in the 2022 fiscal year, are poured into K-12 public schools across the state. Since 1985, the lottery has accumulated $24 billion for education funding.
Other recipients of lottery funds include: programs to support veterans (over $19 million); breast cancer awareness, education, and research (over $15 million); HIV/AIDS prevention, education and treatment (over $10.5 million).
AID FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
Indiana’s lottery surplus benefits educators and first responders. It is the only state to contribute to the pensions of public employees explicitly.
The state’s lottery surplus is allocated toward pension funds for teachers, firefighters and police officers, as well as the Lottery Surplus Fund. For the 2022 fiscal year, the surplus amounted to $375.5 million, which is 25% more than what was expected, according to data.
Since its 1989 inception, the lottery has raised $4.9 billion for the Lottery Surplus Fund, $760 million for the police and firefighters’ pensions and $947 million for teachers’ pension. The surplus fund goes toward lowering excise taxes by up to 50% for vehicle owners.
EDUCATING THE YOUTH
Georgia is the first state to use lottery earnings for scholarships.
The state started its Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally scholarship program when it created its state lottery in 1993.
Since then, the program has distributed $12.6 billion to Georgia students in the form of tuition grants and scholarships to attend the state’s colleges, universities, or technical colleges. As a result, 2 million students have been able to attend college.
Other states followed suit in offering lottery scholarships for promising students headed to college. These states include Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.
UPGRADING SPORTS STADIUM
The Maryland Stadium Authority wants to upgrade a stadium completed in the 1990s.
It asked the state legislature to raise the allowable bond debt for stadium projects from $235 million to $1.2 billion and to increase the number of lottery proceeds that can be used to pay debt service on the bonds from $20 million to up to $90 million per year.
Breaking the record set the year before by $6.3 million, profits from the Maryland lottery sent a record $673.7 million to state programs for the 2022 fiscal year.
Lottery profits, which go in the Maryland General Fund, provide budgets for education, public health, safety and other services. Lottery proceeds have also paid the debt on the bonds for two stadiums in Baltimore -- Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles, and M&T Bank Stadium, where the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens play.