RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Lottery says it earned a record $538.6 million in the most recent fiscal year on the strength of sales of instant scratch-off tickets and a huge Mega Millions jackpot drawing in December.
The Lottery says the profit for the fiscal year that ended June 30 broke the mark of $487.1 million set in in fiscal 2012. Lottery sales in fiscal 2013 grew 7.2 percent to a record $1.81 billion.
Executive Director Paula Otto says the number of people buying Virginia Lottery tickets grew 2 percent.
A $636 million Mega Millions jackpot last December, the second-largest lottery prize in U.S. history, resulted in more than $16 million in profit for the Virginia Lottery from jackpot ticket sales.
Under state law, all lottery profit goes to Virginia’s K-12 public schools.
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