ATLANTA — The Georgia Lottery Corp. recently announced record first-half profits for education. Georgia Lottery profits for the first half of fiscal year 2010 totaled $429,754,000, surpassing the previous record set last fiscal year by more than $8.49 million.

Effingham County students, families and citizens have benefited greatly from the Georgia Lottery’s success with the Georgia Lottery as the only traditional lottery in the U.S. to experience 11 consecutive years of growth in profits.

In Effingham County since the Georgia Lottery’s inception in 1993, 2,661 university system students have received more than $15.6 million from Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program; 360 private college and university students have received more than $1.5 million from HOPE: and 2,982 technical college students have received more than $5.2 million from HOPE.

More than $17.1 million has gone to Effingham County schools for Georgia’s Pre-K Program, benefiting 4,329 students. The county has received an additional $5.1 million for capital outlay and technology initiatives.

Effingham County businesses also have benefited with local lottery retailers earning more than $10 million in commissions.
Lucky Effingham residents have won more than $75.8 million. Many of those dollars have been reinvested into Georgia’s economy.

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has returned more than $11.4 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. More than 1.2 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary pre-kindergarten program.

For more information, visit the Georgia Lottery Web site at:www.galottery.com