The Tennessee Education Lottery (TEL) has set yet another record, this time surpassing its previous record for annual funds transferred into the Lottery for Education account.
A total of $499.9 million was transferred to the state’s education fund for college scholarships during fiscal year 2021. This number is up more than $50 million from last year’s report.
Tennessee Lottery sets new college scholarship records
Since its launch back in 2004, the TEL has raised over $6 billion for Tennessee education. This funding comes from the more than $24 billion in lottery tickets sold.
The corporation sets these funds aside each year in its Lottery for Education account and uses them to provide scholarships and grants to high school graduates throughout the state.
Thanks to FY 2021, lottery players contributed another almost $500 million to the account.
The announcement was made via Twitter last Friday:
The TEL set its previous record in FY 2019 by collecting $447.1 million for education initiatives.
According to the Lottery, the corporation has experienced a 14% year-over-year increase in funding. Not surprisingly, this increase directly correlates to a yearly increase in overall lottery ticket sales.
The Tennessee Lottery shattered another record in June when it announced $2.08 billion in annual revenue for FY 2021. Before that, the Lottery had never exceeded $2 billion in revenue within a single year.
In total, lottery participants have claimed more than $15.2 billion in prizes since 2004.
Students reap the benefits
Lottery players are far from the only people reaping the rewards here, however.
TEL President and CEO Rebecca Hargrove considers students to be the biggest winners of all:
“We’ve had many winners this year, but the biggest winners continue to be Tennessee students and families who participate in the designated education programs the Lottery funds. These incredible results that benefit the state from border to border don’t happen without the steady leadership of our Board of Directors, the commitment of employees, the dedication of our more than 5,000 retailers, the enthusiasm of our players and the support of our Governor and the Legislature.”
Since the Tennessee Lottery’s launch, over 1.6 million scholarships and grants have been divvied out to students across the state.
During the 2019-20 academic year alone, over 150,000 Tennessee students became beneficiaries of these awards.
Even more students will benefit from these funds as the Lottery continues its upward momentum in FY 2022.
