Education lottery marks third anniversary

Monday, Jan. 10, 2005 | 9:06 a.m.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The South Carolina Education Lottery marked its third anniversary on Friday.

Since the lottery's creation, total ticket sales have exceeded $2.4 billion and players have won more than $1.4 billion. State income tax collected on winnings over $500 totaled more than $18 million.

In addition, the lottery has transferred more than $713 million to the Education Lottery Account for appropriation by the state Legislature.

"To put a face on our state's lottery, I think of over 300,000 lottery scholarships, millions of dollars to fund research at Clemson, USC and MUSC, $276 million for the public schools and millions more for our county libraries; this is the heart of what we do at SCEL," said lottery executive director Ernie Passailaigue.

K-12 programs have received more than $266.7 million in appropriations from lottery funds. More than $534 million has gone to higher education and more than $8.2 million to public libraries.

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