As the executive director of the South Carolina Education Lottery, Hogan Brown ’80 is accustomed to dealing with some big numbers that have had a huge impact on education in the state.
The lottery had a record year in 2021, with $2.42 billion in sales and $607.6 million transferred to the General Assembly for education. That comes on top of another record year in 2020, with $2.11 billion and $492.8 million transferred. The expected transfer this fiscal year is $540 million.
Brown says a variety of factors played a role in the increase.
“I think people being closed in, a lack of other entertainment options and an element of the stimulus all contributed to the increase,” he says. “This year, I think we’ll be more on the trend line we would have expected for a normal year.”
The lottery recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. It sold its first instant ticket on Jan. 7, 2002. Since its inception, it has transferred more than $6.9 billion for higher education, K-12 and community education programs. The bulk of the money funded more than 2.2 million college scholarships for South Carolina students.
Currently, 943 Wofford students receive financial support from lottery funds. Over the past two decades, more than 31,000 lottery-funded scholarships and grants were awarded to Wofford students.
Brown has been there since the beginning, coming on board in August 2001 as director of legal services. He became interim executive director in the fall of 2016, and was officially named to the position in May 2017.
“Very few people at the start had significant lottery experience, so certainly we’ve grown as a staff,” Brown says. “And our lottery is a very traditional lottery. We don’t offer keno, we don’t do internet sales and all sales must be in cash. Things other lotteries do, we aren’t allowed to do. We’ve had to abide by the same rules since we started, and the results speak for themselves.”
Brown says keeping the lottery fresh is one of the challenges his team faces. Keeping it secure is another.
“We work very hard on our internal controls and cybersecurity,” he says. “It is of utmost importance for us to retain the trust of our players as well as our beneficiaries.”
Brown also has to combat the misconception that the lottery commission decides where the money goes. (Spoiler alert, it doesn’t. That job belongs to the state legislature.)
Brown isn’t Wofford’s only connection to the lottery. Brian Ford ’08, the chief financial officer, is in his ninth year with the lottery. Timothy Madden ’85, now a family court judge and a current member of the Wofford Board of Trustees, served on the lottery commission, including a stint as chairman, for 14 years.
Ford says officials focus on running the lottery efficiently. Operating expenses are under 1% of revenues.
“We take a lot of pride in selling in a responsible manner,” Ford says. “We don’t spend what other lotteries do on advertising, and we focus on beneficiary messaging and not hard sales tactics.”
Ford says he feels fortunate to be a part of the organization.
“Everyone understands that their job makes a difference to the bottom line and what gets transferred to education,” he says.
By Robert W. Dalton