ATLANTA – The Georgia Lottery Corp. hit a historic milestone this month, as the program’s total funding of education since its inception in 1993 reached $25 billion.

There’s a lot of zeroes in there,” Gov. Brian Kemp quipped Thursday as Gretchen Corbin, the lottery organization’s president and CEO, presented him with a giant check.

Georgia voters approved creation of the lottery in 1992, drawn to support the referendum by the promise of an influx of funds to the new HOPE Scholarships program and Georgia pre-k.

Since then, more than 2 million college students have received HOPE scholarships or grants, while lottery revenue has supported more than 1.7 million pre-kindergartners, Corbin said.

Kemp said some Georgia students have benefited from both programs, both at the beginning and end of their academic careers.

“The impact of lottery-funded HOPE scholarships and pre-k goes far beyond the classroom,” the governor said Thursday. “It makes our workforce stronger and the state more sought after by job creators. … Georgians win every day with the lottery.”

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.