The Texas State Lottery
The Texas Lottery is operated by the Texas lottery Commission, based in Austin and is available throughout the Lone-Star State. The modern form of the lottery in Texas came about when voters approved an amendment to the Texas Constitution authorizing lottery sales in 1991.
There are a range of different games making up the Texas Lottery. They include Mega Millions, with a $79,000,000 prize pool, Powerball $60,000,000, Pick 3, Daily 4, Cash Five, Texas Two Step and Lotto Texas.
The lottery’s first game was the Lone Star Millions, a scratch-off ticket and the first day sales it prompted in 1992 was a then world-record with 23.2 million purchases. A member of the public successfully submitted the lottery’s logo, a cowboy hat thrown high in celebration and it is still used today.
In 2003 Texas joined the Mega Millions consortium and as part of the cross-selling agreement between the operators Powerball tickets were added to the roster in 2010.
In April 2013 the House voted not to recommission the Texas Lottery Commission, a decision that could potentially bring an end to the Texas Lottery in the future.
Of the prize pool of the Texas Lottery 63 percent is paid out in prize money; 25 percent is paid to the Foundation School Fund, which supports public education in Texas; retailer commissions and lottery administrative costs make up 10 percent and around 2 percent, or the value of unclaimed prizes, is given to the Texas Legislature for allocation to other programs in Texas.
