The silver lining for many who play the lottery is that while they may not win, at least money is going to education. But how much? The answer is about a quarter out of every dollar. Over the past year, the Florida Lottery paid winners 66.5%. Education got the next big number with 25.5%, followed by retailers with 5.6%, ticket vendors at 1.4%, and 1.0% admin fees.
So once lottery winnings have been paid out, 76% of the proceeds went directly to education within the state last year. Over the past reported year that resulted in $61 million for Broward, $124 million for Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach with $57 million.
So, when you play the lottery the majority of what you lose does end up in the pocket of the eventual winners but for what’s left-over, three-quarters of it does end up in our schools.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images