The South Carolina Lottery has extended its contract with Scientific Games by another six years, adding on to the 18-year partnership that was forged when the lottery debuted back in 2002.
The South Carolina Lottery will continue to contract Scientific Games for its operations. (Image: FOX Carolina)
Scientific Games, a Las Vegas-based corporation that is a global leader in gaming and lottery operations, has designed and manufactured every instant lottery game sold in South Carolina. The contract extension includes warehousing and a new state-of-the-art distribution facility, as well as a “next generation” lottery mobile app that offers interactive services.
We have accomplished great results over the past 18 years, working with Scientific Games as our primary instant games provider,” said South Carolina Education Lottery Executive Director Hogan Brown. “Continuing the Scientific Games Enhanced Partnership program, a partnership proven highly successful, will strengthen our ability to responsibly optimize revenue for education in South Carolina.”
According to La Fleur’s 2020 World Lottery Almanac, Scientific Games operates all 10 of the top 10 performing lotteries in the word.
Lottery Beneficiary
The South Carolina Lottery’s mission is to fund education programs in the Palmetto State.
The lottery is fresh off its best 12-month period, ticket sales totaling $1.98 billion in the 2019 fiscal year. After prizes of $1.31 billion were awarded, $140 million in retailer commissions paid, and general operating expenses fulfilled, $487.6 million was left for education.
In March of 2019, the sole winner of the record $1.537 billion Mega Millions jackpot – the largest lottery prize for a single ticket in US history – was redeemed. The anonymous winner purchased the ticket at the KC Mart in Simpsonville, South Carolina.
The convenience store’s owner received $50,000 for selling the winning interstate lottery ticket. The state tax on the win was approximately $60 million.
Online Future?
Only eight state lotteries currently offer online games. South Carolina isn’t one of them.
The South Carolina Lottery currently offers instant games and terminal generated games, the latter’s portfolio consisting of Pick 3, Pick 4, Palmetto Cash 5, and Lucky for Life. The state also participates in the interstate games Powerball and Mega Millions.
The state lottery often refers to the terminal generated games as “online games,” which has caused some confusion among Palmetto lottery players.
The term ‘online game’ has nothing to do with the internet,” the lottery website explains. “In fact, you are only allowed to buy lottery tickets from a licensed lottery retailer. The word ‘online’ is used because the terminals used to validate and dispense the tickets have an ‘always on’ data line that connects the retailer’s terminal to a centralized computer system.”
The South Carolina Lottery App – available on Apple and Android devices – allows players to view winning numbers, and check tickets and second-chance promotions.
Though there are no current plans to offer lottery games through the internet in South Carolina, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has slashed lottery sales at brick-and-mortar locations across the nation. State lotteries with online games are reporting an increase in sales during the health crisis.