SACRAMENTO – Final sales figures for the 2006-07 fiscal year show the California Lottery reached $3.3 billion in sales, the third highest year ever! The California Lottery transferred more than $1.2 billion in supplemental funding to public education, making this the seventh consecutive year the Lottery will contribute more than $1 billion.
“California Lottery employees are excited about creating new winners, engaging with retailers and raising funds for our beneficiary,” said Lottery Director Joan Borucki. “This past fiscal year, we introduced 40 new Scratchers® games, created 23 new millionaires and raised over a billion dollars for education.”
The highly popular Scratchers® games brought in more than $1.8 billion in sales. Draw games such as SuperLOTTO Plus, MEGA Millions, and other daily games posted sales of $1.49 billion. Lottery officials attribute this year’s sales figures to innovative products such as the Million Dollar Raffle and holiday gift packs marketed throughout the state. Both of these products were so successful, they will be reintroduced in fall 2007.
It was a winning year at the California Lottery as over $1.7 billion in prize money was awarded! At a frequency of every other day, a California Lottery player won a prize of $100,000 or more. Finally, the California Lottery proudly created 23 millionaires in the 2006-07 fiscal year.
California Lottery products are sold through a retail network of over 19,000 retailers throughout the state. For their efforts, these California Lottery retailers earned sales commission and bonuses totaling $233 million.
Over 95 cents of every Lottery dollar is returned to the community in the form of contributions to education, prizes and retail commissions. The California Lottery contributes at least 34 cents of every dollar that players spend on Lottery products to public education and returns more than 50 percent of sales to players in the form of prizes. Since its inception in 1985, the Lottery has contributed more than $19.6 billion to California schools out of total sales of more than $53.25 billion. Retailers win too, earning $3.4 billion in compensation since 1985.