The Mega Millions jackpot is currently more at $1.25 billion ahead of Friday night’s drawing.
For Kentucky lottery players, that’s an incredible amount of upside. It’s a life-changing sum.
But it’s also substantial money for Kentucky schools.
Kentucky Lottery president praises tax revenue
Kentucky Lottery President Mary Harville told WPKY last week that these games help fund important education programs. In other words, more lottery ticket sales, the more money for Kentucky schools.
When asked if she thought there are larger jackpots today than in the past, Harville reminded listeners that it’s random. However, she was happy with the revenues the big jackpots produce.
“I’m just so thankful (for the tax revenues), I’ll take it,” Harville said.
The Key Scholarship program is largely funded through lottery play in Kentucky, and that program is available to virtually every student in the state.
“We fund many scholarships: the need-based, dual-credit, (and) work-ready,” Harville said.
Harville added the Work-Ready Scholarship program helps fund programs to develop trade skills.
“(It) trains people to work in healthcare positions, as well as for jobs like being an electrician or a plumber,” she said.
According to Harville, the lottery generated $380 million in tax revenue in fiscal year 2022-23, which ended July 1. With Mega Millions and Powerball each having large jackpots in recent months, Harville said Kentucky is “off to a really great start this fiscal year.”
New scratch-off games in Kentucky with prizes as large as $50K
Kentucky launched six new scratch-off ticket games in the past few weeks. One of them is a $30 scratch-off game where jackpot winners can net $50,000. That game alone can give out as much as $24 million in prizes.
Twice this year, Mega Millions and Powerball had jackpots in excess of $1 billion. Those lucrative jackpots have resulted in record numbers of tickets sold in Kentucky and nationwide. Consumers will often buy state lottery tickets or scratch-offs when they venture out to get national lottery tickets.
Kentucky legalized its state lottery in 1989, and it has one of the longest-running state lotteries in the country.