Education Lottery Reserves

Every year, unspent lottery dollars transfer to reserves managed by the State Treasury. The beginning reserve for the education lottery on July 1, 2021, was $1.7 billion.

At the end of the 2021 fiscal year, about $71 million in surplus was transferred to the lottery reserves, along with an additional $5 million in interest earned by the end of the 2022 fiscal year.

Since 2011, state law has required the lottery shortfall reserve to hold an amount equal to 50 percent of the previous year’s net lottery proceeds. If lottery ticket sales underperform, the state can draw on this reserve to fund HOPE. After reaching the 50 percent target, additional reserves are considered unrestricted. At the end of FY 2022, the required Shortfall Reserve Balance was $772 million, and the state exceeded that balance by more than $1 billion. At the conclusion of FY 2022, the total education lottery reserves were $1.9 billion, or 129 percent of lottery proceeds.

$1,123,504,691 $772,477,000