COLUMBIA — The S.C. Education Lottery celebrated its eighth anniversary Thursday at a ceremony in Columbia.
Lottery officials were joined by students from area colleges and universities who have received scholarship money from the lottery.
South Carolina first began selling lottery tickets Jan. 7, 2002.
Since that time, officials said, more than $1.6 billion from the lottery has funded nearly 794,000 higher education scholarships and K-12 programs have received more than $549 million.
“It’s almost mind-boggling,” S.C. Education Lottery Executive Director Paula Harper Bethea said. “Whether you supported the lottery in the beginning or whether you didn’t, the fact is that its impact on education in South Carolina is palpable.”
James Allen, a student at Midlands Technical College, said he gets $900 per semester from a lottery-funded scholarship.
“It helps with tuition and my books,” he said.“It’s been really crucial in helping me have the money to go back to college again.”
At the end of the month South Carolina will begin participating in the multi-state Mega Millions game. The game is played in 12 other U.S. states.
The 2008-09 fiscal year was a successful one for the state lottery, lottery commission chairman Tim Madden said on the lottery’s Web site, www.sceducationlottery.com.
Sales totaled more than $1 billion, exceeding a billion dollars for the second time in the lottery’s history, he said.
More than $260 million was transferred to educational programs, bringing total contributions to the Education Lottery Account since the lottery’s inception to more than $1.9 billion, Madden said. And although the S.C. Education Lottery has the authority to spend 8 percent in administrative overhead, excluding retailer commissions, those expenses were successfully limited to 4.3 percent of sale, resulting in additional revenue for education.
At the end of the month South Carolina will begin participating in the multi-state Mega Millions game. The game is played in 12 other U.S. states.
On the Web
S.C. Education Lottery, www.sceducationlottery.com
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