The Florida Lottery was first permitted to offer lottery tickets in 1986 by Florida voters with a 2-to-1 majority, with the goal to fund the Florida Public Education. The Bright Futures Scholarship Program, which enables students to pay for college, is funded by the Florida lottery.
The first Florida lottery tickets, a 1$ Scratch-Off game, called Millionaire, went on sale in 1988. It was a huge success with over $95 million sales in first two weeks.
The Popular game in Florida lottery, Florida Lotto, does not have a jackpot cap and can roll over as long as there is no winner with all six numbers match. Florida lottery set a record of $30 million revenue in a single day due to a huge $100 million jackpot in Florida Lotto on Sep 14, 1990.
Florida’s lotto got major changes in 1999. The numbers drawn matrix changed from 6 out of 49 to 6 out of 53. An additional drawing on Wednesday is started. Due to this additional Wednesday draw the initial jackpot was lowered to $3 million. On Oct 11, 2009, FL lottery introduced an add-on to Florida Lotto, called Lotto Xtra. Players can choose to add an extra dollar to their bet to multiply their non-jackpot prizes up to 5 times.
FL lottery started Mega Money, another big jackpot game, in 1998.
Florida lottery joined Power ball on Jan 4th, 2009 and Mega millions in May 2013.
Along with above big jackpot games, Florida offers various other games like Cash4Life, Pick 2, Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, Fantasy 5, and Lucky Money etc..
During 2009, Florida has players won hundreds of millions of dollars, in that single year the FL lottery paid ten jackpots of each $10 million.
FL lottery celebrated 25 years of operation in 2013. The celebrations caused a complete re-branding of Florida lottery with a new logo and its presence on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Florida lottery has more than 13000 retail stores selling the lottery tickets. These retailers earn 5% of their ticket sales along with other incentives on winning tickets. With 18% of sales in FL lottery, Publix is the largest retailer in the state.
The FL lottery draws are made in Universal Studios in Orlando, and anyone 18 or older can participate in the Florida lottery to check their luck. The players who wins games like Florida Lotto, Fantasy 5, Lucky Money and Pick 2,3,4 or 5, should claim the prize within 180 days of the drawing.
For details of Florida lottery and latest news visit Florida Lottery Official Website