28 October 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Kansans spend millions on lottery tickets every year, but have you ever wondered where all that cash goes?
KSNT 27 News reached out to the Kansas Lottery to figure out where the money from all its ticket sales go annually. Over the course of the lottery’s history in the Sunflower State it has sent more than $2.1 billion to the state of Kansas with around $4.2 billion in prizes paid out to players.
The most recent fiscal year saw more than $338 million in sales with more than $85 million sent to the state, according to the Kansas Lottery. The lottery is required to pay out at least 45% of its total sales in prizes to players. The full breakdown of where cash went in FY 2023 can be found below:
Prizes – 60.7%
Transfers to the state – 25.5%
Cost of sales – 3.7%
Retailer earnings – 5.9%
Administration costs – 4.2%
Lottery earnings sent to the state are distributed among several different funds. In FY 2022, the state’s cut of a little over $80,000,000 was distributed to the following places:
Economic Development Initiatives Fund – $42,432,000
Juvenile Detention Facilities Fund – $2,496,000
Correctional Institutions Building Fund – $4,992,000
Problem Gambling Grant Fund – $80,000
Veterans programs – $1,260,000
Mental health programs – $7,418,897
State General Fund – $21,457,762
Additionally, through the lottery’s Veterans Benefit Games, cash is deposited into three special funds to help benefit Kansas military veterans. In FY 2022, more than $1.2 million was deposited into these funds.
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