Georgia's state-sponsored lottery set a sales record for the ninth year since the games that fund the popular HOPE scholarship program began in 1993.

Sales increased more than $100 million --- from $2.604 billion to $2.710 billion --- in the fiscal year that ended June 30. That's a 4 percent gain over the previous year.

Some state officials have been predicting a slowdown in lottery revenue, which pays for thousands of HOPE college scholarships and for pre-kindergarten classes, especially with increased competition from lotteries in states along Georgia's borders. Tennessee started a lottery in January, joining Florida and South Carolina.

But by the time the final payout is made, $782 million will have been provided this year for HOPE and pre-kindergarten, a $31 million increase from the $751 million that went to the fund the year before.

Georgia legislators had debated in this year's General Assembly session whether to trim HOPE benefits because of fears that lottery revenue would slow while the cost of the scholarship program ballooned. But they rejected attempts to dramatically cut benefits to scholarship recipients. Legislators did toughen the academic standard needed to qualify for the scholarship and set up a system that could reduce future benefits if and when lottery revenue declines. Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, who led the opposition in the General Assembly to slashing HOPE benefits, said Wednesday that the strong lottery sales figures reinforce the need to slow plans to cut the scholarship program.

"Fortunately, Little Red Riding Hood continues to evade the big bad wolves trying to cut HOPE," Taylor said.

Sales in the lottery's instant ticket games led the increase in revenue, jumping $70 million, from $1.486 billion to $1.556 billion. Mammoth jackpots helped drive up sales of big-money games such as Mega Millions.

The state of the economy seems to have little impact on lottery sales, which have climbed in boom times and bust. David Gale, executive director of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, said bad times can be a boon for state lotteries.

"My philosophy is, in bad economic times people have fewer discretionary dollars. A lottery game is a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment," he said.

Gale said Georgia Lottery officials have done a good job of introducing new games while maintaining existing ones that are popular with players.

Margaret DeFrancisco, president of the Georgia Lottery Corp., said the lottery has about 80 instant ticket games at a time, and a couple of new ones are introduced every few weeks, keeping the games fresh with players.

Since about 30 percent of the lottery proceeds go toward education, people are more likely to play, she said.

"The cause is so clear. The programs have directly impacted 16 percent of the population of Georgia," DeFrancisco said.

The strong ticket sales also affect the bonuses paid to Georgia Lottery Corp. employees, who received more than $2 million in bonuses last year.

Rank-and-file workers who are not on commission qualify for incentives based on preset sales goals. The amount that will be paid in bonuses to those employees this year was not available Wednesday.

GEORGIA LOTTERY SALES
In billions of dollars:
1994.. $1.12
1995.. $1.42
1996.. $1.59
1997.. $1.72
1998.. $1.74
1999.. $2.03
2000.. $2.31
2001.. $2.19
2002.. $2.45
2003.. $2.60
2004.. $2.71
Source: Georgia Lottery Corp.
/ DALE E. DODSON / Staff