LOUISVILLE – On April 4, 1989, then-Kentucky Governor Wallace Wilkinson purchase the first two lottery tickets at a Thorntons Inc. convenience store on Preston Highway, marking the Kentucky Lottery Corp.’s first sale. 

Today, 25 years later, the organization has sold $15.2 billion worth of lottery tickets and contributed $4 billion in profits to the state, reports WDRB.com, with most of the money going toward college scholarship funding, education and affordable housing.

“Thanks to our incredible network of retailers and the confidence the people of Kentucky have shown in our games, we’ve been able to achieve modest growth and support a variety of programs in the commonwealth over the past two decades,” Arch Gleasonn Kentucky Lottery president and CEO, said in a press release.

The news source notes that Kentucky retailers have also benefited, receiving nearly $958 million in commissions from selling and cashing tickets.