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South Carolina Education Lottery outlines operations, transfers and forecasting uncertainties
Summary
The South Carolina Education Lottery described its operations, staffing, retailer network, historical transfers to education and forecasting approach; officials said the agency is cash‑only by statute and said allowing debit cards would likely boost transfers but lacks nearby state examples.
At a meeting of the Higher Education Subcommittee, Dolly Garfield, director of the South Carolina Education Lottery, described the agency’s operations, financial flows and efforts to protect player anonymity.
Garfield said the lottery is self‑sustaining and governed by a nine‑member board of commissioners that approves advertising, the annual budget and game changes. “We are completely self sustained and self funded,” Garfield told the subcommittee.
Garfield said the lottery employs roughly 145 people, including 68 full‑time staff at the Columbia business office, a claims center on Assembly Street, and about 49 field staff who service retailers. The lottery works with approximately 3,900 retailers across the state. She said the agency offers two types of games in South Carolina—draw games (for example, Mega Millions and Powerball) and instant scratch‑off tickets—and does not offer keno, slot machines, or sports betting.
On financials, Brian Ford, the lottery’s chief financial officer, provided a breakdown of each dollar of sales: roughly 65% returns to players in prizes, about 25% becomes net proceeds for transfer to the state education lottery account, about 7% goes to retailers in commissions, and about 3% covers operating and game costs. Ford described long‑term growth in transfers to education but said transfers vary significantly when there are unusually large jackpot runs or other statistical events.
Ford told the committee that transfers rose sharply during the COVID period and that two recent fiscal years included unprecedented $700‑million jackpot runs that materially increased transfers. He said the lottery projects a return toward a pre‑COVID trend absent large jackpots and that the agency revises transfer estimates three times a year (including a February and May window) as actual activity becomes clearer.
Committee members asked for granular data about ticket sales by county and about where lottery funds are spent. Garfield said the lottery can provide sales location data to the committee, and she clarified that the lottery itself “has nothing to do with” decisions about where the transferred net proceeds are allocated once they reach the treasurer and the General Assembly.
On policy questions, Garfield and Ford said that South Carolina’s Lottery Act currently prohibits debit‑card sales; the lottery has asked for authorization to accept debit cards because some venues and younger players are increasingly cashless. Garfield said only Wyoming and Tennessee remain cash‑only by law, and lottery officials said they expect accepting debit cards would boost transfers but have limited empirical comparisons from nearby states.
Garfield closed by summarizing lifetime metrics: she said the lottery has transferred more than $8 billion to the state to support education since inception, paid roughly $21 billion in prizes to players, and that retailers have earned about $2 billion in commissions. She said monthly transfers to the education account typically range from about $40 million to $50 million after retailer commissions, prizes and operating expenses are paid.
