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What You Should Know About The Florida State Lottery

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The Florida Lottery creates excitement and fun for everyone who plays by introducing new games which have bigger prizes. For the past 32 years, it has created over 3000 millionaires and has given away more than $72.5 billion dollars in rewards.

The Florida Lottery offers seven Terminal games and up to 80 Scratch-Off games at more than 13,000 retail locations worldwide.

Crossing happy milestones

The Florida Lottery was established in 1986 by Governor Bob Martinez and the Florida Legislature with a mission to maximize the revenues for education.  It was authorized through a constitutional amendment according to which the proceeds from the lottery would be used to improve public education in Florida.

Driven by this Legislature, the tickets for the Florida State Lottery were mandated to go on sale from January 18, 1988. Prior to this, Rebecca Paul was hired as the first Permanent Secretary of the Florida State Lottery. The sales for the first game of the Lottery- Millionaire-began on January 12, 1988.

The Millionaire game which was a $1 Scratch-Off exceeded $95 million in sales setting a record. The game was a great hit so much so that in just 17 days the Lottery was able to repay the entire amount of $15.5 million-plus interest which it had borrowed from the General Revenue Fund of the State.

A statewide favorite

The Florida Lottery became the hot favorite in the state and the players began to enthusiastically participate in all the games launched by it. On April 29, 1988, two more games were launched, Florida Lotto and Cash 3.

The Florida Lotto produced an estimated $52 million jackpot by August 31, 1988 and became the industry leader. To appease its growing player name the Florida State Lottery launched the Fantasy 5 as a bi-weekly game in April 1989.

The Play 4 was launched as a daily game in July 1991 and the Mega Money Game was launched in 1998. In July 2008, the Florida State Lottery associated with the Multi-State Lottery Association and launched the Powerball.

The Lucky Lines game was launched in October 2010 and the Mega Millions in May 2013. The Mega Money game was replaced by the Lucky Money Game. Pick 3 and Pick 4 were added to the new daily game product line subsequently.

On February 17, 2017, the regional multistate game Cash4life began operating and the insta-win game Fast Play was launched in the same year.

The number of Scratch-off games offered by the Florida State Lottery has also grown over the years. Today,  players have a myriad of themes to choose from with a huge variety of instant prizes. The Scratch-off Players have won huge prizes like free tickets, merchandise and instant cash prizes up to $10 million. Players can now choose from a range of entertainment options. The tickets for the Scratch-Off games are priced from $1 to $25 thus offering something to each player.

A fun mission to public welfare

The Florida State Lottery has more than 13,000 retail locations across Florida, where the players can choose from a wide range of approximately 60 different Scratch-off games at any one time. 

While growing into an industry leader over the years, the Florida State Lottery has also emerged as a dependable contributor to Florida’s education system

For every dollar spent on lottery products by the Florida State Lottery about 66.5% has been used for prizes and a huge percentage of 25.5% has been transferred to education.

The Florida State Lottery believes in giving back to society. It has contributed extensively to education in Florida.  Florida’s education system has received more than $1 billion in each of the past 18 consecutive years from the Florida State Lottery. These funds have been used for the construction and renovation of about 800 state-wide schools through the Classrooms First and Classrooms for Kids projects which have benefitted kids from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade.

The funds have also helped more than 8,80,000 attend college with Bright Futures Scholarships. The State Universities and Community colleges have received more than $9.9 billion that have helped them stay afloat and benefit the students of Florida. Totally, the schools and students of Florida have got more than $38 billion in lottery profits. 

Over the years, Florida State Lottery has become an intricate part of the lives of the citizens of Florida. The Lottery provides the citizens the hope that their dreams could come true. Today, people are showing their support to the Lottery by buying billions of dollars worth of products from the Florida State Lottery every year.

All the residents of Florida are being benefitted by the Florida State Lottery. Some are the winners of the million-dollar Lottery prizes while some have benefitted by getting better education with the funds donated by the Lottery.

The Florida State Lottery (https://www.lotterycorner.com/fl)  is sure that with the support of the players, employees and its state-of-the-art gaming system in place, it will continue to introduce the best games for the players and will continue to contribute to the state’s education from its profits in the years to come.Â