The Texas Lottery has kick started a yearlong celebration as it approaches its 30th anniversary in May 2022, commemorating the occasion as “30 Years of Winning”.
Voters in the Lone Star State approved the creation of a lottery on November 5, 1991, and on May 29, 1992, lottery sales in the state commenced. 23.2 million tickets were purchased in the following 24 hours – a world record for first-day lottery sales.
Over the next year, the Texas Lottery will celebrate its history with monthly content and giveaways on the agency’s social media pages. The lottery will also return to in-person events and it will debut a commemorative 30th Anniversary scratch ticket game at lottery retailers in April 2022.
Lottery Executive Director Gary Grief commented: “There was tremendous excitement for the launch of the Texas Lottery, but there was no way at the time to predict the successes the lottery has seen over the past three decades. Since May 1992, the Texas Lottery has achieved more than $113bn in sales and distributed more than $69bn in prizes to players.
“Most importantly, the Texas Lottery has generated more than $32bn in revenue for the State of Texas, including more than $26bn for public education and nearly $160m for Texas veterans since the dedication of these funds by the Texas Legislature. We look forward to celebrating ‘30 Years of Winning’ with Texas Lottery players, retailers, vendor staff and Texas Lottery Commission employees, and we look forward to the many achievements yet to come.”
Robert G Rivera, Chairman of the Texas Lottery Commission, added: “We take our mission to generate revenue for the State of Texas through the responsible management and sale of entertaining lottery products very seriously. The 30-year mark at the Texas Lottery is a major milestone and indeed worthy of a celebration.
“On behalf of the entire Commission, we extend our congratulations to our players, retailers, vendors and agency staff for the sustained success of the Texas Lottery achieved over such a long period of time.”