TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Lottery announced Monday it has broken its all-time monthly sales record.
January sales exceeded $603 million thus far and there's still one more week left in the month.
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The Lottery's previous record was March 2015 when sales reached $539.5 million.
“These tremendous sales mean great things for Florida, as Lottery players, retailers and the state’s education system will directly benefit," said Tom Delacenserie, Secretary of the Florida Lottery. "To be just three weeks into 2016, and already have hundreds of millions of dollars in prizes won, and an estimated $187 million in revenue generated for education is truly unprecedented."
A large portion of January's sales came from Powerball, which accounted for $237.6 million of sales. 40 percent of that will go to education, the Lottery said.
Florida Lotto has also been experiencing a series of jackpot rollovers, which has generated high sales.
For the first-time ever, three of the Florida Lottery nine sales districts - Miami, Tampa and Orlando - each exceeded $1 billion in annual sales during the 2015 calendar year. This equates to $875.1 million in contributions for education, the Lottery said.