GALOTTERY - Georgia Lottery is run by the U.S. state of Georgia. Headquartered in Atlanta and run by the Georgia Lottery Corporation, the galottery takes in over US$1 billion yearly. Half the money goes to prizes, one-third to education, and the remainder to operating and marketing the lottery.

The Georgia Lottery - The education money funds the HOPE Scholarship, and has become a successful model for other states, including the new South Carolina Education Lottery.

Long unconstitutional, a state-run lottery was explicitly allowed in a 1992 amendment to Article I, Section II, Paragraph VIII of the Georgia State Constitution.

The original weekly jackpot game, Lotto Georgia, later merged with two other states to become Lotto South. Like Florida, Georgia also has a once-daily Fantasy 5 game. There is also the the twice-daily, once on Sunday, Cash 3 and Cash 4 games. It also participates in the multi-state Mega Millions lottery, and has numerous scratch-and-win instant games which change frequently.

In February 2006, Lotto South ended; its replacement does not have a cash option, except for Virginia winners. Win For Life, the Lotto South replacement, offers the possibility of winning $1000 per week for life (Virginia offers the choice of $520,000 lump sum in lieu of the annuity payments).

The GLC was created in 1992 by the Georgia General Assembly and then-governor of Georgia Zell Miller in the Lottery for Education Act (OCGA 50-27). Rebecca Paul, who began the Florida Lottery, then ran the Georgia Lottery for its first decade, before leaving to start up the new Tennessee Lottery in 2004.

In the mid-1990s, Georgia had offered Powerball, but switched to the Big Game (now Mega Millions) when it began in 1996. As a result, Georgia is not eligible to offer any of Powerball's companion multi-state games, such as Hot Lotto.

The Georgia Lottery Corporation
The Georgia Lottery was created in November 1992 by the people of Georgia to enhance education funding. The Lottery for Education Act created the Georgia Lottery Corporation (GLC) to oversee and operate the lottery. Rebecca Paul was hired in February 1993 as president of the GLC, and four months later, on June 29, the Georgia Lottery was launched. First-week sales of more than 52 million tickets set a new opening-week lottery sales record of $7.80 per capita.

Within five months, the Lottery met its first-year sales goal of $463 million, and ended its first full year in operation with $1.1 billion in total sales. The Lottery's first-year per capita sales of $164.81 set a new national record, surpassing the previous mark of $128 set by Florida in 1988, effectively making the Georgia Lottery the most successful start-up state lottery ever.

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