I live in Mass I can't believe the state lottery raked in a 1 billion profit last year. If that's the case why does tuition keep going up for our state colleges each year? I think the payouts are not good on scratch tickets here. The most I've ever won was 200 dollars on a scratch ticket a few years ago. The money the lottery makes should really be helping people in this state instead of lining the coffers of the lottery.

The lottery itself does not keep the profits.  All of those $1 billion in profits already go to the state to "help people". 

Here is a page that shows HOW the money is distributed:  http://www.masslottery.com/about/communities/distribution.html.

Here is a page showing WHERE it is distributed: http://www.masslottery.com/about/communities/complete-list.html

The Massachusetts Lottery, in my opinion, has a great system for delivering the profts, because it allows the local jurisdictions to decide how they want to use the money.  It is not all thrown into one big pot (like many states), where it gets wasted.

From the Mass Lottery Web site:

"Lottery revenues are distributed to the 351 cities and towns of the Commonwealth according to a local aid formula established by the Legislature. Lottery funds are not earmarked for any specific programs, allowing cities and towns to choose how they would like to spend the funds."

Online for State residents sounds good but i've always read alot of their money comes from neighboring states like New Hampshire. They should also try and partner with the Casinos. If they could setup a booth or put a bunch of machines all around the Casino, i think they would do really good.

Yep, I believe it.  Ever see anyone buy $10,000 in lottery tickets at one time?  I have in MA.

Hi Todd,

Thanks for the info. I know that our lottery does give money out to states and towns but still have a hard time understanding why we have such high tuition for our state colleges and the fact that it goes up each year. One would think with all that money the lottery makes that it should really lessen the tuition of public colleges in this state.

I think online lottery sales will be about as popular as buying groceries online turned out to be.

Just my opinion...... I could be wrong on this one........

Perhaps vending machines will work wonders...............

Didnt mitt romney give free tuition to top 25% of students

Unfortunately, with regard to education, the one thing that is never addressed by government is the soaring COST of education.  Annual tuition costs are beyond ridiculous at this point, because of all the crazy expenditures and pensions being paid.  Sending kids to college has always been something that is hard on the pocketbook, but when it gets to the point that a state lottery has to dedicate a billion dollars a year to make it work, then it's time to re-think the whole thing.

Sorry for the rant; I know about your high tuition rates and sympathize.

Are you confusing the Massachusetts Lottery with lotteries from other states? I know NY Lottery, NJ Lottery, NC-E Lottery and a whole bunch of other lotteries were set up purposely to support education. PA Lottery is unique because it was set up to support the senior citizens over there. Mass Lottery supports towns and cities which it does. I think the towns and cities use the money from lottery to support many programs including schools

"Helping education" is always a good reason to raise taxes, but it never translates into lower tuition's.

Amen to that, my property taxes are over $10000 a year, 30% go to township and county 70% to school district.

and since they spend 9000 + per student per year mine does,nt even cover 1 student.

The Massachusetts lottery allows people from outside the state to play, maybe that is why it raised so much revenue. There is a lesson there for other lotteries.

In Fiscal Year 2012, the Massachusetts State Lottery returned over $983 million in net profit to the Commonwealth, of which over $883.7 million in Direct Local Aid was distributed to the 351 cities and towns.