The Georgia Lottery Just Set A Record – But Not One To Celebrate
The Georgia Lottery has an annoying habit of releasing the amount it contributed to education long before releasing the amount of their total revenues around 3 months later. They do this for an obvious reason. They hope that while they are patting themselves on the back for the amount given to education you won’t notice the paltry percentage they are actually contributing.
The Georgia Lottery just finally released its audited financial report for fiscal year 2026 & something jumped off the page at me.
The Lottery generated a RECORD HIGH $6.193 BILLION in revenue but contributed a RECORD LOW 24.88% to education, the lowest percentage in its history!
Why is that a problem?
Because the law that created the Lottery in 1993 (O.C.G.A. § 50-27-13) says that “as nearly as practical,” at least 35% of lottery proceeds should go to education.
That’s 35 cents of every dollar. Instead, we’re getting LESS THAN 25 CENTS!
Here’s what that means:
● Total lottery revenue: $6.193 BILLION
● Actual contribution to HOPE & Pre-K: $1.541 BILLION
● Contribution at 35%: $2.168 BILLION
● DIFFERENCE: $627 MILLION
The Lottery shorted the state of Georgia by $627 million!
That’s $627 MILLION that could have gone toward educating Georgia’s children & helping students attend college if the Lottery had honored the statutory target.
Governor-elect Bottoms says she favors bringing casino gambling to our state. She says it could generate up to $500 million per year for education. Well I’ve got good news for her. We already have at least an additional $500 million per year if she and the General Assembly will hold the Georgia Lottery accountable.
During my eight years in the Georgia House, I repeatedly raised this issue as we debated expanding gambling through casinos & sports betting.
In fact, I devoted a significant portion of a chapter in my book, The Job I Never Wanted, to this very issue.
During the Lottery’s first 30 years, it has achieved the 35% target only three times: 1995, 1996 & 1997.
And now, three decades later, we’re moving even farther away from that target.
Lottery officials have long relied on four little words in the statute: “as nearly as practical.”
Those words provide flexibility, but I’ve always believed they should not become an excuse for continually falling short of the Legislature’s intended goal. And a 10% shortfall is not “as nearly as practical” by any honest definition.
I have repeatedly asked a simple question:
Why are we talking about expanding gambling in Georgia when we haven’t adequately addressed the revenue being generated by the gambling we already have?
The argument for casinos and sports betting is almost always the same: Think of all the additional money we could generate for education.
But here’s my question: Why not start by getting more of the EXISTING lottery revenue into our classrooms & scholarship programs? $627 million this year alone!
I’m grateful for the $1.541 billion the Lottery contributed to education this year. That’s a tremendous amount of money.
But we shouldn’t confuse record dollar contributions with fulfilling the original intent of the law.
The Georgia Lottery is generating more money than ever, yet the percentage going to education has fallen to a historic low.
I believe Georgia taxpayers, parents & students deserve an explanation.
Where is all that extra money going? The obvious answers are exorbitant salaries, administrative costs, marketing & massive prizes.
It’s time for the General Assembly to take a serious look at why the Lottery continues to fall so far below the 35% statutory target.
Imagine what could’ve been done to help Georgia students with that $627 million.
You can read more about my battles against gambling expansion in my book, The Job I Never Wanted: A Reluctant Politician’s Journey Under the Gold Dome.
