New York state’s lottery system isn’t just paying out to that one big winner. It also helps fund the state’s public education system, and state officials want to raise awareness of that.

If you’ve bought a lotto ticket and walked away disappointed, don’t worry. You still helped the next generation win. That’s the message New York Racing and Gaming Commissioner Brian O’Dwyer is hoping to send in a marketing campaign.

He said a recent survey showed most New Yorkers don’t know that money raised by the lotto goes to the state’s public schools.

“I want them to do it responsibly. But I also want them to have a lot of fun doing it, knowing very well that every dollar that they put in their kids when they lose their kids win,” O’Dwyer said.

The state’s gaming operations provided schools with about $3.9 billion in aid last fiscal year. O’Dwyer said aid has steadily climbed as more people are playing the Lottery in recent years. 

Education official Robert Lowry says that although lotto aid only accounts for about 5-10% of total education funding, it’s still critical.

“It’s part of what schools can use to pay teachers, utility bills, keep their busses running, so forth. And it’s paid as part of a payment schedule that’s set out in law,” said Lowry, deputy directory for the Council of New York School Superintendents.

Funding amounts and school district allocations are determined annually by the state Legislature and distributed by the state Education Department. Lowry says formulas are used to determine how much each school receives, and ensures poorer districts get more assistance.

“By and large, for districts which get less from the property tax, get more of their state aid paid earlier. But once again, how the lottery is allocated doesn’t affect the total amount of state aid that a district receives,” Lowry said.

Already this year, gaming officials say $55 million has been generated for New York’s schools. O’Dwyer said the state’s lottery is considered North America’s largest and most profitable.

“Responsible gambling is fun. And New Yorkers have a long tradition of that. What we’ve done, though, is we’ve taken that tradition and taken it out of the hands of organized crime and put it back into the pockets of the people of New York,