Georgia Lottery: Georgia lottery sales continue setting records
Georgia lottery sales continued to set records during the first quarter of this year, easing worries that the lottery-funded HOPE scholarship may run dry.
Lottery figures to be released Wednesday show a 6 percent growth rate in sales during the first three months of 2004 and a record pace for this fiscal year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Through three quarters of the 12-month period ending June 30, sales are up more than $100 million compared with the same period last year, according to lottery figures. The games have transferred $589 million to the state for HOPE and pre-kindergarten programs so far this fiscal year, up $53 million from the same period during fiscal 2003, also a record year.
Even if sales do no more than remain stable in the fourth quarter, the lottery will produce about $100 million more this fiscal year than the state is spending on HOPE and pre-kindergarten.
The General Assembly approved a bill slowing costs for HOPE, which provides college scholarship money to more than 200,000 Georgians.