A Review of the South Carolina Education Lottery and Its Oversight of Retailers and Players
June 2019
The South Carolina Education Lottery (SCEL) is a state government enterprise created to generate additional revenue for education.
SCEL sells lottery tickets through a statewide network of retailers.
In June 2018, we published a report on the appropriation and use of lottery revenues. From the inception of the lottery in FY 01-02, through FY 17-18, $5 billion in net lottery proceeds have been appropriated by the General Assembly, primarily to higher education and K‑12 programs.
In FY 17-18, total lottery revenues were $1.754 billion, yielding $438 million in net income.
In conjunction with our 2018 review, we conducted a management performance review of SCEL’s operations, whose results are presented here. We conducted this review in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.