Tifton wins the lottery!

TIFTON, May 24, 2008 (The Tifton Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- -- Tifton wins the lottery!

The Georgia Lottery Corporation has announced the grand opening of its Tifton District Office. The new location, which will service customers in South Georgia, replaces the lottery's Thomasville District Office.

"Our Tifton office is centrally located and easily accessible from Interstate 75," said Georgia Lottery Corporation President and CEO Margaret DeFrancisco. "We hope the new location will be more convenient for many of our South Georgia residents."

The new office is located at 2406 N. Tift Ave. Georgia lottery players can claim prizes and purchase tickets at the Tifton district office.

"We look forward to great success in our new location as we continue to fulfill our mission of maximizing dollars for the lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship and Pre-K program," DeFrancisco said.

"This is a great example of the type of small firms we help," said Brad Day, president and CEO of the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce. "It is the kind of business that makes our economy strong."

Day said that initially there will be three people staffing the lottery office. "Beth Norris is the manager for that office," Day said.

Day said in early fall last year, CB Richard Ellis, a national real estate firm, contacted the Tifton chamber to inquire about available commercial or retail space. "Greg Sellers keeps up with commercial space," Day said. "He had the information to give them. I really appreciate Greg's work on this."

Since its first year, the Georgia Lottery Corporation has returned over $9.9 billion to the state of Georgia for education. All Georgia lottery profits go to pay for specific educational programs including Georgia's HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia's Prekindergarten Program. More than one million students have received HOPE and more than 860,000 4-year-olds have attended the statewide, voluntary prekindergarten program.

To contact reporter Jana Cone, call 382-4321- ext. 208.

To see more of The Tifton Gazette or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tiftongazette.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Tifton Gazette, Ga. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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