Sales of lottery tickets are averaging about $10 million or more a week statewide, and if that trend continues, education will get some of the proceeds from the Mississippi Lottery this fiscal year.

“The lottery has been way more successful than we anticipated,” Sen. Joel Carter, R-Gulfport, said this week during a meeting of the Gulf Coast Business Council.

Mississippi’s first lottery ticket was sold on Nov. 25, 2019 and Powerball and Mega Millions national lottery games were added two months later on Jan. 30.

From November through June — even with the coronavirus shutdown that cut sales by 10% to 13% in the early weeks — Mississippi Lottery Corporation transferred $70.7 million in net proceeds to the state treasury.

Since then the lottery has boosted state coffers by another $18.3 million.

Where the money goes

Some of the net proceeds in the beginning months were used to repay