“The Texas Lottery continues to set sales records and generate record revenue for Texas education and veterans,” said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery. “This fiscal year, we experienced an increase in sales of $549 million or more than 10 percent over the previous year. We could not continue this record growth without the hard work of our employees, retailers and vendor partners.”
(AUSTIN) – For the eighth consecutive year, the Texas Lottery has set a new sales record, achieving $5.627 billion in sales for fiscal year 2018, resulting in a record total contribution of $1.450 billion for the state of Texas.
“The Texas Lottery continues to set sales records and generate record revenue for Texas education and veterans,” said Gary Grief, executive director of the Texas Lottery. “This fiscal year, we experienced an increase in sales of $549 million or more than 10 percent over the previous year. We could not continue this record growth without the hard work of our employees, retailers and vendor partners.”
This year’s revenue transfer included $1.432 billion to the Foundation School Fund and $18.1 million to the Fund for Veterans’ Assistance, the Lottery’s largest contributions to Texas education and Texas veterans. The Texas Lottery has now contributed more than $22 billion to Texas public education and more than $100 million to Texas veterans since the dedication of such funds by the Texas Legislature.
The Beneficiaries: Texas Education and Texas Veterans The Foundation School Fund, administered by the Texas Education Agency, funds the operational needs and special program services for Texas school districts including teacher salaries, utilities, equipment, bilingual education, special education, gifted and talented education, and career and technical education.
The Texas Veterans Commission Fund for Veterans’ Assistance makes grants available to eligible charitable organizations, local government agencies, and Veterans Service Organizations that provide direct services to Texas veterans and their families. With 1.7 million veterans spread across the state, these programs provide financial assistance, transportation services, PostTraumatic Stress Disorder counseling and housing assistance.
“The Texas Veterans Commission values our great partnership with the Texas Lottery Commission,” said Thomas P. Palladino, executive director of the Texas Veterans Commission. “With their contribution and others, over 250,000 veterans and their families received vital services from over 400 non-profits and local governments through Fund for Veterans’ Assistance grants.”
Record Scratch Ticket Sales Scratch ticket sales for FY 2018 totaled $4.42 billion, the highest scratch ticket sales in Texas Lottery history. Scratch ticket sales accounted for 78.5 percent of total sales and saw a 12.3 percent increase over FY 2017 sales.
In addition to record scratch ticket sales, strong performance for draw games generated $1.2 billion in sales. Daily 4 set an all-time sales record for the game, with $114.2 million in sales.
Record Year for Retailers and Players FY 2018 was also a record year for the Texas Lottery’s nearly 18,000 retailers across the state. Retailer commissions totaled $281.5 million, the highest commission paid to retailers in Texas Lottery history and amounting to an average of $15,679 for each of the Texas Lottery’s retail partners.
“Nearly 8,000 of our retailers, 45 percent of our retailer base, are located in counties that were declared disaster areas following Hurricane Harvey, making this year’s record commissions all the more important,” said Grief.
FY 2018 was also a big year for Texas Lottery players. Players collected $3.737 billion in prizes, the highest amount of prizes paid out in Texas Lottery history.
Careful Spending The Texas Lottery’s careful spending kept administrative costs to just 3.99 percent of FY 2018 sales, one of the lowest administrative expenditure rates in the country.
“The cost containment measures taken in our administrative budget continue to contribute to our success and our ability to provide revenue to Texas schools,” said Grief. “Any unspent administrative funds are returned directly to the Foundation School Fund.
FY 18 by the Numbers • If it was a publicly traded company, $5.627 billion in annual sales would place the Texas Lottery on the 2018 Fortune 500 list right behind Harley Davidson and ahead of other well-known brands including Western Union, Caesar’s Entertainment, Marathon Oil, and Hasbro.
This is the 15 th consecutive year that the Texas Lottery generated more than $1 billion in revenue for Texas.
97 percent of Texas Lottery sales are returned to the state in the form of contributions to the Foundation School Fund, the Fund for Veterans’ Assistance and other state programs, and through prizes and retailer commissions, bonuses and incentives.
“We continue to provide significant support for Texas education and veterans,” said J. Winston Krause, chairman of the Texas Lottery Commission. “I am proud of the Texas Lottery’s employees, retailers and vendors for once again doing an outstanding job in the strategic development, management and marketing of our portfolio of games.”
About the Texas Lottery Beginning with the first ticket sold in 1992, the Texas Lottery has generated $28 billion in revenue for the state and distributed $57 billion in prizes to lottery players. Since 1997, the Texas Lottery has contributed $22 billion to the Foundation School Fund, which supports public education in Texas. As authorized by the Texas Legislature, certain Texas Lottery revenues benefit state programs including the Fund for Veterans’ Assistance. Since the first veterans’ themed scratch ticket game was launched in 2009, the Texas Lottery has contributed more than $100 million for programs supporting Texas veterans.
The Texas Lottery provides several entertaining games for lottery players including Powerball® , Mega Millions® , Lotto Texas® , All or Nothing™, Texas Two Step® , Pick 3™, Daily 4™, Cash Five and scratch ticket games. For more information, visit us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or at www.txlottery.org. PLAY RESPONSIBLY.
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