Lottery helps taxpayers hit jackpot

The Maryland Lottery wants to help people dream. While the odds of those dreams becoming a cold, hard-cash reality are more than a million-to-one, look no further than last week?s Mega Millions jackpot winner from Georgia who came away with half of a stunning $390 million pot.

Last fiscal year, the lottery generated more than $501 million for the state?s general fund. These earnings benefited government-funded services and programs such as education, public health, human resources and public safety. Of the $501 million generated for the state, the lottery actually recorded about another $1.06 billion in total ticket sales.