Florida Lottery History and Education

The Florida Lottery was established in 1986. Its proceeds are used to enhance public education in Florida. Tickets started being sold in 1988. The Lottery was so successful from launch that it returned its loans to the state only 17 days following the startup. FL LOTTO and CASH 3 were introduced in April 1988, FANTASY 5 was launched on April 1989, PLAY 4 in July 1991, and MEGA MONEY in February 1998. The Quick Pick option became available in April 1990 and the Advance Play option was introduced in 1993. In 1994, FANTASY 5 started playing five nights per week and FL LOTTO twice per week in 1999, when its matrix changed from 6 out of 49 numbers to 6 out of 53, generating larger jackpots more often. MEGA MONEY game also changed with time and increased its jackpot to $2 million. In January 2005 the Lottery introduced the lottery game GROUPER. By April 2005 the Lottery had a lot more than 12,000 retailers in operation throughout the state. florida lottery winning numbers The lottery offers now between 30 and 50 Scratch-Off games of varied themes to select from at any given time.

Florida Lottery provides educational funding for Florida's school children. The proceeds from Florida Lottery ticket sales are utilized in the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund (EETF) and appropriated by the Florida Legislature. The lottery is involved with programs like Classrooms First and Classrooms for Kids, mentoring programs, literacy programs and many more. The lottery is committed to the state as a community. If prizes are unclaimed 80% of the sum is utilized in the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund.

FL Lottery tickets can't be sold over the Internet, mail, phone or fax. Lottery winners cannot be anonymous. By law the Lottery has to provide a winner's name, city of residence, game won, date won and sum won to any 3rd party who requests the information. Yet FL Lottery winners'home addresses and telephone numbers are confidential. In terms of prize claiming and their rules you need to know that sums between $600 to $250,000 can be claimed at any FL Lottery District office or Florida Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee; winnings of $600 or more require the completion of a FL Lottery Winner Claim Form and an Internal Revenue Service Form W-9 "Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification" form; and winnings greater than $250,000 must be claimed at FL Lottery Headquarters in Tallahassee.

Winning numbers all off games are showed on local TV stations where you could also start to see the lottery playing games live. The drawing times are Eastern Standard Time (PM) 7:57, 11:00 and 11:15 with regards to the game playing.