florida lottery

The Florida Lottery is one of the most lucrative single-state lottery systems in the United States with numerous on-line and scratch-off games offering players a wide variety of prize levels.

The minimum age to purchase a Florida Lottery ticket, regardless of game, is 18.

On January 4, 2009, Florida joined the Powerball game; its double matrix was changed to accommodate Powerball's most-populous member. Beginning January 7, 2009, Powerball will be drawn at Universal Studios in Orlando. Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Instant games 3 Online games 4 Rollover, Rolldown, and "Quick Pick" 5 See also 6 References 7 External links //

History

The Florida Lottery began operation on January 12, 1988 by order of a constitutional amendment approved by Florida voters by a 2-to-1 margin in the general election of November 4, 1986. The point of the Lottery is to give extra funding to state education, and it was mandated that a significant proportion of all revenue generated by ticket sales go to the Education Enhancement Trust Fund. The Bright Futures scholarship program is funded by the Florida Lottery.

The first game offered by Florida Lottery was Millionaire, a $1 scratch-off game with a US$1 million annuity prize. Seventeen days of ticket sales allowed for the Lottery Commission to repay with interest the initial US$15.5 million bond from Florida's General Revenue Fund that got it going.

On September 3, Sheelah Ryan of Winter Springs, Florida, won the largest single lottery jackpot in world history to that point, a jackpot of US$55.16 million. She was the tenth Florida Lotto winner. However, the Florida Lotto cash option was still ten years away. She died before receiving all her winnings.

On April 28, 1989, the Florida Lottery expanded with Fantasy 5, a five-number on-line drawing game played every Tuesday and Friday initially. Its jackpots were typically in the tens of thousands of dollars, but had reached over $1 million through rollovers.

The first US$100 million Florida Lotto jackpot was on September 14, 1990. Six tickets split a US$106.5 million jackpot, each getting $17.75 million. That day, the Florida Lottery set a record with US$30 million in revenue from that game alone.

In 1991, a daily four-number on-line game, Play 4, was introduced on July 4, with a top prize of $5,000. December 10 sees the advent of the "Florida Lotto Month", where minimum jackpots and rollovers were guaranteed at US$10 million for the Christmas season.

On September 27, 1993, the first $2 Scratch-Off game, Bingo, was introduced. Through variants, it is the longest-running Scratch-Off game in the Florida Lottery.

On January 24, 1994, Fantasy 5 expanded to every weeknight (Monday through Friday.) On May 22, the first Florida Lotto mail-in promotion began where losing tickets could be mailed in for a prize. Called the Great LOTTOMOBILE Giveaway, 50 tickets each won their holders a 30th Anniversary 1995 Ford Mustang.

In October 1995, the Florida