MS Lottery hits $2 billion in sales. Here’s how little money comes back to the Coast

Mary Perez
·4 min read

The Mississippi Lottery has surpassed $2 billion in sales of scratch tickets, Powerball and Mega Millions games, and more in the four-plus years since the lottery was legalized.

After winnings and expenses were paid, that resulted in more than $500 million in proceeds sent by the Mississippi Lottery Corp. to the state for roads, bridges and education since sales began in November 2019.

The first $80 million in lottery proceeds each year is dedicated to road and bridge work throughout the state, and $377 million has been directed to that fund since the lottery began.

Another $142 million was sent to the Education Enhancement Fund for early education, literacy programs, textbooks and supplies. The annual report from the lottery doesn’t itemize in what areas of the state this money is spent.

The lottery has been a success in South Mississippi. After years of driving to Louisiana to get tickets for major lottery jackpots, Coast residents can now buy them at home. And they do.

For fiscal year 2023, Jackson County was second behind Hinds County — the most populous in Mississippi — in lottery sales. Harrison County came in third. Two Moss Point businesses were among the Top 10 retailers in the state last year. Midway Food Mart was fifth and Miss Al Market was seventh. Lottery sales still aren’t legal in Alabama, and sales may be boosted by residents of Mobile driving to Moss Point to buy tickets.

A woman bought tickets from the Purple Cow on Brownswitch Road in Slidell hoping to get her piece of the $380 million jackpot in 2015. The Powerball tickets were sold in Mississippi in January 2020, and it’s become the lottery game of choice for South Mississippi.
A woman bought tickets from the Purple Cow on Brownswitch Road in Slidell hoping to get her piece of the $380 million jackpot in 2015. The Powerball tickets were sold in Mississippi in January 2020, and it’s become the lottery game of choice for South Mississippi.

Coast lottery players especially love Powerball. Six of the state’s top 10 sales outlets for Powerball tickets in 2023 were in Jackson and Harrison counties:

  • 4. Midway Food Mart, Moss Point

  • 6. Scarlet Pearl Casino, D’Iberville

  • 7. Clark Oil Co., Moss Point

  • 8. Miss Al Market, Moss Point

  • 9. Circle K Store, Moss Point

  • 10. Keith’s Superstore, Moss Point

“Enthusiastic retailers, loyal players, dedicated lottery employees and knowledgeable vendors have all contributed to the success of the MLC,” said Mike McGrevey, chairman of the MLC board.

Benefits to the Coast?

With Coast counties providing such a large portion of lottery sales in Mississippi, how much of the $80 million in annual road and bridge work is dedicated to the Coast?

In 2023 and 2022, it was zero.

In 2021, the Mississippi Department of Transportation used lottery proceeds on three Coast projects: to pave nearly seven miles of U.S. 90 in Jackson County from Mississippi 57 to West Pascagoula River Bridge, U.S. 49 from Creosote Road to north of O’Neal Road in Gulfport and lighting on the Biloxi Bay Bridge in Harrison and Jackson counties.

Lottery proceeds were used to pay for lighting on the Biloxi Bay Bridge in 2021. Mississippi lottery has provided $80 million annually from ticket sales and MDOT decides how to spend the money.
Lottery proceeds were used to pay for lighting on the Biloxi Bay Bridge in 2021. Mississippi lottery has provided $80 million annually from ticket sales and MDOT decides how to spend the money.

In 2020, lottery funds were spent to mill and overlay one mile of U.S. 49 from the beach to 28th Street in Gulfport.

MDOT, which decides how the lottery money is spent, said in a press release in December that funds from the Mississippi Lottery now are used to pave rural highways across the state.

Other pots of highway money

Because MDOT doesn’t dedicate lottery funds to Jackson, Harrison and Hancock counties doesn’t mean the agency isn’t using millions of dollars from other pots of federal and state money to improve roads and bridges on the Coast.

In its year-end report, MDOT said the Federal Highway Administration obligated $926 million to Mississippi in fiscal year 2023, which was $100 million more than the previous year.

“From the Mississippi Legislature, MDOT received a total of almost $2 billion, which includes a nearly $1.5 billion earmark-free appropriation as well as a $620 million supplemental appropriation,” MDOT said.

That money is funding several large projects on the Coast, such as the widening of I-10 from Diamondhead to Long Beach starting soon and a $213 million project to widen Mississippi 57 in Jackson County and build a bypass around Vancleave. It’s designed to serve as a hurricane evacuation route and alleviate congestion from five schools in Vancleave within one mile.

Coast shares the wealth

The lottery isn’t the only place where money generated in the three Coast counties is redirected to less wealthy areas of the state.

More than a third of the $7 billion in tourism revenue generated in Mississippi in 2022 was collected on the Coast. Most of the proceeds go to the general fund, with a portion used to promote tourism in all areas of Mississippi.

Biloxi Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich frequently has commented that while the city’s casinos generate a vast majority of the Tidelands funds each year, only a small portion is returned to fund projects in the city.

In 2015, the state legislature used “Robin Hood” tactics to permanently take $36 million a year from the casino fund, earmarked to improve roads leading to the casinos, and use it to back bonds to build and repair bridges in other areas of the state.

Derelict bridges are a huge problem for Mississippi. Across the 82 counties 1,053 bridges are in dangerous condition.

Sunflower County has 170 bridges, or 27% of the county’s total, in poor condition. Tallahatchie County has 156 in poor condition, Carroll County 226.

Hinds County has 655 bridges in poor condition, and ironically has the highest lottery sales of any county in the state.