The Florida Lottery is now giving away free gas as prizes.
It announced its first five winners who will get free gas for life, or $52,000 cash. Another 50 people won free gas for a year, which is actually $2,600 worth of prepaid gas cards.
A California state senator wants to do the same thing, saying free gas would entice more people to play the lottery.
South Carolina’s lottery director, Ernie Passailaigue, says our state will watch how well the games do in Florida, and if there’s demand here for gasoline as prizes “we might consider doing that.”
But he says cash is usually the best option, which is what our lottery already offers. He points out that, despite the price of gas, last year was the second-best in the South Carolina Education Lottery’s history in terms of sales, bringing in $992 million.
And he says in just the first ten days of this new fiscal year, which started July 1, our lottery is $3 million ahead of last year.

Advertisement