TALLAHASSEE – Every day can just be your lucky, at Walmart.  Now, winning the lottery will be as easy as grocery shopping since Walmart has agreed to sell lottery tickets in their US stores.  They have reached an agreement with the Florida Lottery to run a pilot program which begin offering games at 27 Walmart Neighborhood Market locations throughout the state. State lottery

Starting this week you will be able to purchase tickets in the Orlando area and it is programmed that this service will stretch across other locations by mid October.  Six terminal games will be available at the instant ticket vending machines such as Powerball, Mega Money and scratch-off tickets.

Florida Lottery has a wide scope of selling locations, more than 13,000 actually  which include supermarket chains such a Publix and Winn Dixie as well as most convenience stores but up until now they haven’t been able to lure Walmart, Target or any of the major drug store chains to join their network. Lotteries

Currently Walmart  stores in other countries sell lottery tickets, however this is the first time the consent to do it in this country.  Teaming up with Florida Lottery is a new territory for them and the initial plan is to sell tickets only at the neighborhood markets instead of the mega chain stores.  Most Walmart neighborhood markets are located in the Orlando area although there are locations in Coral Springs, Tampa, Largo, Melbourne, Pompano Beach, Cape Coral and Fort Myers.  So you might just be able to buy tickets at stores near you as early as October 5.

How long will you be able to try your luck at Walmart?  Lottery officials haven´t announced a specific date, much of it depends on the response of the public towards this pilot program.  The idea is that it will be a total success and eventually lottery will also be sold at Walmart? mega stores, in the meantime they are more than happy that Walmart has given them a chance to try out this pilot program.   They are also eager to see how this strategic alliance will turn out to be. Mega lottery

The ultimate winner of this partnership is, education.  Florida Lottery´s mission is to maximize profits in order to better public education in Florida.  In the fiscal year 2009-2010,  the Florida Lottery has succeeded in contributing an outstanding $1.24 billion to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund.  This makes Florida Lottery not only an education benefactor but also a successful business enterprise.