POWERBALL JACKPOT ADDS TO EXCITEMENT OF ALL-TIME HIGH FOR EDUCATION

NASHVILLE—Amidst the excitement of a $198 million Powerball jackpot won in Tennessee Saturday night, the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation has closed its Fiscal Year with new records for sales and proceeds for education for the period of July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019.

With record gross total sales of $1.81 billion, the TEL returned an all-time high of $447.1 million for all Lottery-funded education programs, which exceeds the prior year education funding by 6 percent. This brings the total raised to more than $5 billion since the Lottery began selling tickets on Jan. 20, 2004.

“What a day!” said Rebecca Hargrove, President and CEO of the Tennessee Lottery. “Not only does the Lottery create fun and prizes for winners such as our $198 million Powerball player, but we continue to provide a valuable source of funding for programs that inspire Tennesseans to achieve their educational goals. This year’s stellar results were made possible thanks to dedicated retailers, enthusiastic players, our Board of Directors and an amazing team of Lottery employees, who remain committed to the strategies that have made us such a success.”

Additional details about the period from July 1, 2018, through June 30, 2019, include:

·      Instant games set a new record of $1.4 billion, up 2.9 percent from the previous year.

·      Tennessee-only drawing style games set a new record of $138.9 million, up 2.1 percent over the previous year.

·      Multi-jurisdictional game sales set a new record of $224.7 million, up 17 percent over the previous year. The significant driver of this increase was a $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot in October 2018, and a full year of Lotto America sales.

In addition to students and families, players and retailers benefited from the Lottery’s record-breaking year. Since inception, players have won more than $13.8 billion in prizes, with 273 winning tickets sold worth $1 million or more. Thirty-three of those were during FY19 alone.

Lottery retailers have earned more than $1.3 billion since inception.

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