Virginia Lottery Sends $423.5 Million to Schools

RICHMOND, Virginia – (PRESS RELEASE) -- Just a year after posting record profits, the Virginia Lottery has again beaten the odds -- and the winner is Virginia's K-12 public schools. Lottery Interim Executive Director Donna M. VanCleave announced today that the Virginia Lottery's net profits for fiscal year 2005 totaled $423.5 million. By constitutional mandate, every penny of that profit goes to K-12 public education in the Commonwealth.

"Through creative efforts and hard work, the Lottery has set yet another record," Governor Mark R. Warner said. "These profits will help bolster our historic investments in public education and support our innovative educational reforms."

"This is exciting news for the Commonwealth," said VanCleave. "By launching new and popular games, as well as maintaining record-low operating expenses, we were able to increase our contribution to Virginia's public schools by more than $15 million."

Total Lottery sales for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005 also set a record: nearly $1.334 billion, exceeding last year's amount by more than $71.5 million. This marks the fifth consecutive year that the Lottery sold more than a billion dollars under former Virginia Lottery Executive Director Penelope W. Kyle's leadership. Kyle's successful tenure running the Lottery ended on May 31 2005, when she departed to become president of Radford University.

Profits for education and overall sales are just two of the records that the Lottery set in fiscal year 2005. Sales of Pick 4, Mega Millions and Scratchers all set records. The Virginia Lottery's approximately 5,000 retailers earned a record $76 million and players won an all-time high of $774.6 million.

There was also one number that has never been so low: the cost of running the Lottery. The Lottery spent just a nickel out of every dollar on operating expenses, even though state law allows up to 10 percent.

"We are very proud of our low operating expenses," said VanCleave. "Every dollar we save in operations is another dollar for Virginia's public schools."

One of the most interesting stories of the year for Lottery players was the number of times that players won very large payouts in the Pick 3 game. On five separate occasions during the year, the same three digits were drawn as winning numbers in a single Pick 3 drawing (for example: 8-8-8). Since triple numbers are always the most popular played in the Pick 3 game, players won big.

It may surprise some people to know that Scratcher games have become the Lottery's best-selling product, rather than the headline-grabbing jackpot games like Mega Millions. Fiscal year 2005 was no exception. With popular games like World Series of Poker, $100,000 Texas Hold 'Em, and Money Maker Double Play leading the way, sales of Scratchers reached almost $680 million.

This is not to say that the multi-state Mega Millions game did not perform well. Fueled by large and exciting jackpots, Mega Millions sales exceeded $137 million in FY 2005, which is a new record. The Lottery's other jackpot game, Lotto South, generated excitement of its own with seven jackpot winners in Virginia during the year.

If you won a Lottery prize, would you let it go unclaimed? Although few people would say "yes" to that question, more than $9.3 million in prizes went unclaimed in FY 2005. All of this money goes to Virginia's Literary Fund, which is used solely for educational purposes, such as school construction, renovation, and teacher retirement funding. The Lottery also collected more than $900,000 under the Commonwealth's debt setoff program, in which prize payments are withheld to pay certain obligations that the prize winner owes, such as taxes or child support.

"The Virginia Lottery is proud of its reputation for integrity, innovation and fun," said VanCleave. "And the benefit to the Commonwealth is clear: more than $423 million for Virginia's K-12 public schools. Helping to fund schools is the reason the Lottery exists."

* all figures are unaudited