Lottery Aid to Education

Editor's Note: This post is not intended to be for or against the lottery. This post is primarily for parents who want to know more about how much money is generated for education, and how is it allocated.

Lottery in the United States (Summary)
(Summary source: wikipedia.com)
Main article: Lotteries in the United States
In the United States, the existence of lotteries is subject to the laws of each state; there is no national lottery. Before the advent of state-sponsored lotteries, many illegal lotteries thrived; for example, see Numbers game and Peter H. Matthews. The first modern state lottery in the U.S. was established in the state of New Hampshire in 1964; today, lotteries are established in forty-one states and the District of Columbia. On October 8, 1970, New York held the first million dollar lottery drawing.

The first modern interstate lottery in the U.S. was Tri-State Lotto. Tri-State Lotto was formed in 1985 and linked the states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. In 1988, the Multi-State Lottery Association was formed with Oregon, Iowa, Kansas, Rhode Island, West Virginia and the District of Columbia as its charter members; it is best known for its "Powerball" drawing, which is designed to build up very large jackpots. Another interstate lottery, The Big Game (now called Mega Millions), was formed in 1996 by the states of Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan and Virginia as its charter members.

Instant tickets, also known as scratchcards, were first introduced in the 1970s and have since become a major source of state lottery revenue. Some states have introduced keno and video lottery terminals (slot machines in all but name).
Other interstate lotteries include: Hot Lotto, Lotto South, and Wild Card 2.
With the advent of the Internet it became possible for people to play lottery-style games on-line, many times for free (the cost of the ticket being supplemented by merely seeing, say, a pop-up ad). Two of the many websites which offer free games (after registration) include www.iwinweekly.com and the larger iWon.com, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IAC Search & Media. GTech Corporation, in the United States, administers 70% of the worldwide online and instant lottery business, according to its website.
Nowadays, many state lotteries in the USA donate large portions of their proceeds to the public education system. Sometimes these funds replace instead of supplement conventional funding ultimately resulting in no additional money for education.


Related Links:
Many states post information on-line about lottery aid to education.

Tri-State Information:

New Jersey:
http://www.state.nj.us/lottery/money/annual_report_2005.pdf

New York:
Aid to Education: http://www.nylottery.org/ny/nyStore/cgi-bin/ProdSubEV_Cat_333653_SubCat_337630_NavRoot_305.htm

Distribution by county: http://www.nylottery.org/ny/nyStore/cgi-bin/ccdist/allocation.php

Article about controversy of aid to education: http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070129/NEWS05/701290338/1035