ATLANTA -- Lottery-funded education programs in Georgia will get an extra $24 million from a record $2.6 billion in sales over the past 12 months.

Gov. Sonny Perdue accepted a check from Rebecca Paul, president of the Georgia Lottery Corp., Tuesday during a ceremonial check presentation. They touted the benefits of the lottery for Georgia students.

"Three quarters of a million students have received Hope scholarships, half a million students have gone to lottery funded Pre-K and $1.8 billion has gone to computer technology and capital outlay," Perdue said.

"And it has made every citizen of Georgia a winner by funding innovative education programs," Perdue said. "And luck had nothing to do with that."

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The 6 percent increase in lottery sales from the previous year boosts benefits for programs such as the HOPE scholarships and pre-kindergarten from $726 million to $750 million.

That also is a record, surpassing the $692 million for fiscal year 2001-2002.

The increase more than matches the cost of higher state college tuition covered by HOPE scholarships for this year.

"This is another great success for the Georgia Lottery," said Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, who helped push the original lottery legislation through the General Assembly as a state senator in 1992.

State lottery officials are expected to have a precise figure on HOPE and pre-kindergarten funding Tuesday, when they were scheduled to participate in a ceremony with Gov. Sonny Perdue to mark $6 billion in lottery proceeds for education programs since 1993.

Lottery sales have set a record nine of the 10 years since the government-sponsored games began. The only down year was 2001.