MS Lottery approaching half a billion dollars for State Treasury
FLOWOOD, Miss. (WLBT) - If you’re taking a chance on the lottery jackpots, despite the outcome, the state will definitely come out a winner. Each dollar spent toward those tickets brings improvements to our state.
With the Powerball payout at $672 million, Mississippians are in it to win when it comes to the Mississippi Lottery. Even if you don’t match the multi-million dollar jackpot, you’re still coming out on top.
Since its inception in November 2019, the Mississippi Lottery Corporation has transferred $478 million dollars to the State Treasury.
“That’s a pretty impressive number, and we hope to hit that half-a-billion mark real soon,” said MS Lottery President Jeff Hewitt. “We had jackpots, mega millions, and the power ball running side by side, running very long jackpots. So it gets pretty wild out there in the retail locations, especially some of our eastern retailers that border Alabama.”
From 2021-2023, Hinds County funds have paid for an over $8 million dollar project from Highway 49 from I-220 to Madison County Line. Another $1.1 million dollar project in Bolton milled and overlayed state roads.
In Madison County, over $3.8 million were spent to mill and overlay State Road 22 to U-S 51. More than $1.6 million went to Rankin County to mill and overlay Highway 18 from U-S 80 to the Terrapin Skin Creek Bridge.
“It’s filling a lot of gaps that simply were there before,” added Hewitt. “Everybody would agree we probably need more funding for a lot of those projects, but we’re providing what we can and what we’re required to do, and we’re very proud of that.”
Mississippi’s education system also continues to benefit. In 2023, $42 million from the lottery was transferred to the Education Enhancement Fund.
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