5 minute freewrite 2853 prompt hierarchy of losers

This is my post for #freewriters 2853 prompt hierarchy of losers hosted by @mariannewest

I am guessing I did not shout loud enough to the universe. Oh well, it was fun to dream. I haven't looked at my numbers yet, maybe I won something.

I know I am not alone, I am among the hierarchy of losers. There were only two winners, one in Texas and one in Missouri. Congrats to them. I bet they are on cloud 9. I am on cloud 3 because I just checked my tickets. I got two numbers on one ticket, but not the Powerball number, so I guess I do not win anything. There is always next time, at least I did not spend a fortune on buying tickets, they got my 6 bucks.

The Lottery is something that upsets me, not because I did not win, but because when the voters voted to have the Lottery, we were told the money would go to support our schools. And you are going to tell me, with all of this money, how they can see fit to charge children to use band equipment.

Maybe the Lottery money is like any other money in big corporations, it gets eaten up in administration, and very little goes to where it is supposed to go.

I asked Google where the money goes?

The Lottery's sole mission is to maximize revenues for the enhancement of education in Florida. That's why approximately 25% of every ticket purchased is transferred to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. The Department of Education then distributes the funds to the public education system. I wonder how much the admin of the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund gets?

A ticket costs 2 dollars, so 50 cents goes to education. Where does the rest go?

Google says Most jackpot winners go with the lump sum, which means they get the “cash value” of that jackpot. For Saturday's Powerball jackpot, the cash value was announced as about $770.3 million. Right away, 24% of that cash value is withheld for federal taxes and goes to the IRS, TurboTax explains So the government gets $184872000.

That amount is from one game. Here in Florida, we have 85 games that includes the scratch off games. Some tickets are played several days a week.

So now I am wondering how much money they bring each week. According to last year's average, it brought in $180 million per week. Total for fiscal year 2023/24 $9.42 billion.

I asked Google again, and got a different answer than I got earlier.

Where does most of the lottery money go?

While 50-60% of lottery funds end up in winners' pockets in the form of lottery prizes, the leftover revenue is used in different ways. A portion of the proceeds go to state-funded programs such as public education, veterans services, the environment, and other important causes

The first time I typed that question, it only mentioned going to schools, and what are "other important causes"?

They say that since the first ticket was sold in 1988, 48.42 billion has been transferred to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. That is a hefty sum of money, too bad the schools do not show it.
photos are mine