Dear Fellow South Carolinians:
Welcome to the South Carolina Education Lottery’s (SCEL) website. Our mission is to enhance educational funding in South Carolina through the fun and entertaining games and products we offer to adults. We hope you enjoy learning more about us as you explore this site.
Our Lottery opened for business in January 2002. Successful from the outset, today our Lottery is a world-class organization, setting records and receiving recognition from industry and business groups.
Here are a few highlights from fiscal year 2007-08:
- Our sales totaled $992 million, the second-best year in our history.
- We transferred more than $266 million for educational programs, bringing total contributions to the Education Lottery Account, since our first sale in January 2002, to more than $1.72 billion.
- Although SCEL has the authority to spend 8% in administrative overhead (excluding retailer commissions), those expenses were successfully limited to 4.6% of sales. These cost savings result in additional revenue for education.
SCEL continues to enjoy recognition as a leader in the lottery industry.* In the per capita transfer of lottery proceeds (the amount we transfer to education divided by our state population), SCEL ranks among the best in the nation. We are proud of this important benchmark of overall performance.
Several members of our key management team received outstanding achievement awards from the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries. None of these notable accomplishments would be possible without the collaborative efforts of our dedicated, diligent staff and more than 3,500 licensed lottery retailers.
Although SCEL continues to face new challenges in 2008, we remain focused on our goals of raising funds to support education and marketing our products in a socially responsible manner. We will continue to introduce new, exciting products while maintaining our commitment to operating a lottery with the integrity you expect and rightfully deserve. We will remain true to our mission and to the legislation which created the South Carolina Education Lottery, by providing entertainment options to adults, with integrity, to support education in South Carolina.
We appreciate your support and welcome your participation in our effort.
Sincerely,
Tim Madden, Chairman
South Carolina Education Lottery Commission
*Ranking 5th per capita instant sales among all US lotteries in calendar year 2006. La Fleur’s 2007 World Lottery Almanac.
