The Georgia Lottery Corp. announced today that fiscal year 2012 profits transferred to the State Treasury’s Lottery for Education Account will amount to $901,328,000, surpassing last year’s transfer by more than $55.2 million. This brings the total raised for educational programs in the state of Georgia to more than $13.6 billion since the lottery’s inception in 1993.

“Our success directly impacts Georgia’s students and families,” said Georgia Lottery President and CEO Margaret DeFrancisco. “With all Georgia Lottery profits benefiting the HOPE Scholarship and Pre-K programs, our year of record-breaking results is news that all Georgians can celebrate.”

Georgia Lottery sales for fiscal year 2012, which spanned from July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012, totaled $3,834,675,000, the highest in the lottery’s 19-year history and more than $236 million ahead of last year’s sales.

Draw games and instant games performed well across the board with a strong boost from the world-record $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in March.

“We remain focused on our mission to responsibly maximize revenues for the educational programs we fund,” DeFrancisco said. “We will continue to explore new channels to grow revenues for HOPE and Pre-K.”

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. has returned more than $13.6 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia Lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs, including Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. More than 1.4 million students have received HOPE, and more than 1.1 million 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.