Oklahoma Lottery
The Oklahoma Lottery is one of the newer state lotteries, having only been approved in 2003. Tickets, however, didn’t go on sale until much later in October 2005. It didn’t matter, though, as Oklahoma lottery plays certainly made up for lost time, with residents queuing up in their droves at 5 a.m. to get their tickets on the first day.
The state kicked things off with a series of instant scratch-off games and the state lottery had been running for a total of 7 minutes when the first winner was made.
That was just the start, though. Since its inception, many Oklahoma lottery players have won big prizes. In fact, the lottery jackpots are common now, with two even coming on the same day in 2008 with both Powerball and Hot Lotto jackpots landing in OK. That double win, which happened on July 2, was the first ever time that Powerball and Hot Lotto jackpots had been won on the same day and in the same state.
Once the Oklahoma Lottery was approved, voters then decided what to do with the profits. On November 2, 2004, the state voted to pass the OK Education Lottery Act. Now, proceeds go toward the state’s education system.
