A week of celebrating Lottery contributions and more!

We often say the Virginia Lottery is good fun for a great cause, a fact that is also true of our lottery counterparts around the continent. That’s why the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) comes together each year to recognize Lottery Week. The goal is to celebrate the collective contributions made by lotteries across the United States and Canada to the communities they serve.

Did you know that, on average, about 95% of funds generated from traditional U.S. lottery games goes directly back into the economy? Whether it’s through retailer compensation, player prizes or in annual turnover of profits to public projects, lotteries are more than just fun and games in most jurisdictions.

In Virginia, all Virginia Lottery profits are turned over to public education. Across the country, lottery profits support a wide range of public causes including the environment, veteran affairs, health care, capital construction projects, programs for seniors, cultural activities and more. In Fiscal Year 2019, U.S. lotteries generated $25.1 billion for those good causes and transferred about $5 billion to their approximately 216,000 retailer partners.

But there’s more! Beyond the numbers, lottery organizations and their partners are often involved in directly supporting local causes by hosting events such as food drives and community cleanups. You may have heard about the Virginia Lottery’s Making a Difference program, which enables Lottery employees to volunteer in K-12 public schools by providing additional volunteer-leave hours. Our teams work hard behind the scenes too and host food, book and clothing drives in their communities.

And it doesn’t stop there. Lotteries also team up with responsible-gambling groups to educate their retailers and consumers to help encourage safe, responsible play. In fact, the Virginia Lottery’s award-winning responsible-gaming program, Play Responsibly, has been recognized nationally for multiple years in a row!

Finally, as we said in the beginning, lotteries are good fun and entertainment for players, especially when there is a large payout for the lucky winners!

You can learn more about where the money goes on the Giving Back page. Join us in celebrating Lottery Week by by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, where we share fun and interesting facts about the Virginia Lottery’s 30-plus-year history and community involvement.  

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