Where do Lottery Funds Go

Like a majority of Americans, I play the lottery.  Whether it is the Super Lotto, Mega Millions or Scratchers every once in a while.  The problem with these games, in my opinion is that it doesn't seem like all of the funds generated from the lottery are not being distributed where they are supposed to.

You would figure they would have a website which shows the distribution of funds publicly.  Supposedly a large portion of the money is distributed to schools, however all I hear about is the lack of funds that schools have and the severe cut backs in the education system.  How is this possible?

For example, we know have $10 scratchers.  On the lottery website it says the chance of  winning a million dollar ticket is 1 in 1,200,000 and states there are 37 million dollar winners.  That means there should be 44.4 million tickets in distribution.  At $10 a pop, that means this game generates 444 million dollars in revenue.  The payouts are somewhere in the $100 million dollar range at the high end.

So my question is, where does the 344 million dollars in profit go?  And let me remind you, this is just for one game.  There are at least 25 other scratcher games going on as well.  With this much money, it makes you wonder why the schools are struggling, the state is at a huge deficit and California in general is in a poor economic state.

I would suggest that Californians ask for a public statement of where these lotto funds go.  I worry that it helps campaigns and other public office causes other than what it is stated to do.