RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Lottery delivered more than a half-billion dollars to Virginia’s K-12 public schools. The profits for the 2015 fiscal year totaled nearly $534 million, officials announced.
By law, every dollar of Lottery profits benefits K-12 education in the Commonwealth. Lottery profits make up approximately 8 percent of Virginia’s K-12 education budget.
“With a combination of hard work by our team, sound business practices, new and exciting games and promotions, and, of course, a bit of luck, we increased our total sales for the year to more than $1.84 billion,” said Virginia Lottery Executive Director Paula Otto. “That’s good news for our schools and all Virginians, whether they play the Lottery or not.”
It wasn’t just education in the Commonwealth that benefitted. Players raked in a record $1.1 billion in prizes during the year, and retailers selling Virginia Lottery tickets earned nearly $104 million in commissions – a record. Many of those approximately 5,300 retailers are small independent businesses.
The increase in total sales was driven by sales of Scratcher tickets, which surpassed $1 billion for the first time in a single fiscal year in Virginia.
“Many people don’t realize that it’s not those headline-grabbing Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots that make up the largest part of our sales,” Otto said. “It’s the quiet and steady sales of Scratcher games. And this year we’re proud to have broken the billion-dollar mark in that category for the first time in our history.”
The lottery also continued its strategy of working to increase its customer base. Almost one-third of adult Virginians play at least one lottery game in a typical month.
“We’d rather see a larger number of people buying a few tickets each, than the same people playing more,” Otto explained.
“It’s all fun and games, but there’s a much larger purpose,” said Virginia Lottery Board Chairman Fred Helm. “The Lottery exists for one reason only: To help generate funds for education in Virginia.”
Officials said that in 2015, more than $12.4 million in Virginia Lottery prize money went unclaimed by the winners. By law, the Virginia Lottery gives all unclaimed prize money to the state’s Literary Fund, which is used solely for educational purposes, such as upgrading technology in schools and teacher retirement funding.
In addition, the Lottery continued its acclaimed Super Teacher Awards, in which outstanding Virginia K-12 public school teachers are recognized in surprise presentations at their schools.
The Super Teacher Awards consist of a $2,000 cash prize for the teacher and a $2,000 classroom credit from the Supply Room Companies. Along with the Virginia PTA, the Lottery presents the awards to eight teachers statewide.
