Where The Money Goes
Beneficiary Information: Contributions to Education
Lottery funds make a difference across the state. By law, they pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3 to keep class size as small as possible, school construction, need-based college scholarships and financial aid, and academic prekindergarten for at-risk four-year-olds.
To date, the N.C. Education Lottery has raised more than $2.69 billion for these programs statewide.
Lottery funds are a small but important part of state money to support education in North Carolina. To
find out more about how lottery funds benefit North Carolina
education programs, including how much your county has received,
please click on the map below and explore the other tabs in this
area of our website.
View Programs by County
Annual Contributions to Education
Each year, the Fiscal Research Division of the N.C. General Assembly provides a report that summarizes how lottery funds were distributed to education programs in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties.
Current Distribution to Beneficiary Programs
While lottery funds have always supported specific
education initiatives in all 100 North Carolina counties, changes
to the way those funds are allocated went into effect July 1. The legislature can adjust how lottery dollars are allocate
each year in the state budget. Here are the changes made for the
fiscal year 2013 budget.
Legal History
In August 2005, the North Carolina State Lottery Act (H. 1023) and the 2005 Appropriations Act (S. 622) was signed into law, which established the North Carolina Education Lottery. View Legislation.
The State Lottery Act, prescribes guidelines as to how each lottery dollar will be spent. The guidelines direct the N.C. Education Lottery Commission to allocate revenues “in order to increase and maximize the available revenues for education purposes.” In fiscal year 2012, 60 percent of lottery revenue was paid out in prizes, 29 percent was transferred to the Education Lottery Fund to be distributed to the education programs that the lottery serves, 7 percent was paid in commissions to retailers for the lottery tickets they sell and 4 percent went to gaming expenses, advertising and marketing, and other administrative costs.