The California Lottery serves the entire state of California, USA with lottery draw games, scratch cards and other games. The lottery was established in November of 1984, after a local ballot measure named Proposition 37 had been posed to California locals. The headquarters of the California Lottery were soon build in Richards, Sacramento, where they can still be found today.

A resounding 58% of locals voted yes to this Proposition 37, which suggested creating a lottery that would provide funding for Californian public schools, colleges and other educational institutions. This has remained the purpose of the California Lottery since it was instated. The first California Lottery tickets were purchased on October 3, 1985.

The Purpose of the California Lottery

When the California Lottery was established, the Lottery Act stipulated that the lottery had to provide 34% of its sales for the funding of schools and colleges, and 50% for prize money to be paid back to Californian residents.

These were the initial figures, which were changed by the Assembly Bill 142 of 2010 which stated that a total of 87% of the California Lottery’s sales should be fed back into public streams. This bill also allowed the California Lottery an opportunity to increase its prize payouts to players, provided that the also increased their payouts made to public education funding proportionately.

Members of the Lottery Commission

The California Lottery is operated by the Lottery Commission, a team of commissioners who are appointed by the Californian Governor. All California Lottery Commission meetings are open to the public.

Currently, the commission consists of five members, and no more than three of these members may be from the same political party; this ensures fair and just decisions made regarding the lottery’s sales and operation. The current members of the Lottery Commission are Nathaniel Kirtman III, Gregory Ahern, Connie M. Perez, Rowena Libang-Boliba and John Smolin.

California Lottery Draw Games

There is a variety of lottery games offered by the California Lottery. The draw games available to Californians include Powerball, Mega Millions, Fantasy 5, SuperLotto Plus, Daily 3, Daily 4, Daily Derby, a horse racing game, and Hot Spot, a keno-style draw game.

In each of these games, players must buy tickets in advance, after which a draw will take place either by Random Number Generation or in a different state, such as Powerball and Mega Millions, which are drawn in Florida and Atlanta. Tickets for these draws can be purchased at any one of the 22,000 accredited retailers throughout the state.

Scratchers Scratch Cards and Second Chance Games

The California Lottery also offers a variety of scratch card games, which are branded under the name of Scratchers and sold at all of the lottery’s state-wide outlets. Each Scratchers ticket ranges in price from $1 to $30, and prizes are paid out accordingly.

Additionally, the lottery has also put several second chance games in place to give players with losing tickets another chance to win a prize. Second chance games are available for all Scratchers cards, top Canadian casino online, as well as Fantasy 5 and SuperLotto Plus tickets.