Where is the lottery money going if not for education?

It's a paradox. The money from the lottery goes to education in New York State. The lottery money, however, doesn't necessarily increase the amount spent on education. How can this be? Let's say that there was no lottery and the money needed for education was 10 billion dollars. The state would take that money out of general revenues. There would be some cuts in education so the amount spent might be 9.5 billion, for example and the tax payers would have to come up with that money. With the lottery, it's a little different. Say the lottery collects 8 billion dollars. Only 1.5 billion (instead of 9.5 billion) dollars would have to go to education from general revenues. That means the state would have 8 billion dollars that they didn't have to spend on education. The state legislators could all get a raise, judges could get nicer cars and the Governor could have a new helicopter. There you have democracy at work. The lottery money goes to education. The education money goes to the politicians and the tax payers are just as screwed either way.