"Our games are meant to offer: a few moments of fun if you scratch, or a few hours of fun with friends if you enjoy our keno game, or a few days of fun, dreaming about the results of the next Mega Millions drawing - or in the case of those big jackpot winners, the potential of a lifetime of fun.
"However, the fun we offer is for very serious causes; in our case, the education of the children of Georgia. It is through the sale of our games that Georgians - and some of our neighbors - have funded HOPE scholarships and the pre-kindergarten program.
"So, we at the Georgia Lottery Corporation are very serious about our fun."
Ms. DeFrancisco argued the lottery has been a resounding success for the state.
"This past year, we topped sales of over $3 billion for the third consecutive year," she said. "We turned over $872 million last year for HOPE Scholarships and pre-K.
It may be hard to believe, but Georgia has now had more than 1 million recipients of HOPE help.
"In a state of 9-plus million people, 1 million students is one impressive number since 1993," she said.
Here's how each dollar Georgians spend on a lottery ticket gets broken down by the state:
n 63 cents of every dollar goes back to players in awards
n 7 cents go to the retailers who sell the tickets
n 2 cents go to the companies that design the games and print the tickets
n 1 cent goes to marketing and overhead
n And 26 cents is considered "profit" and used to fund HOPE and pre-K.
Georgia boasts the only lottery in country that has experienced 11 years in row of increasing profit.
There are but seven states without a state lottery: Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Mississippi and Alabama.
"I hope Alabama never starts one, because our neighbors there have supported your children with their lottery dollars," she said.
Meanwhile, Ms. DeFrancisco is trying to debunk the myth that most of those who play the lottery are those who truly cannot afford to do so.
"Our typical player actually is a 42-year-old male who makes $52,000 a year and has some college," she said.
About half those who play are females, she added.
"It's all about fun, about excitement, about entertainment," she said. "Lotteries are about human behavior and random occurrences. The fun and the challenge of what we do everyday is trying to predict how you'll react in those situations."
The ads for the lottery are meant to be humorous and grab your attention.
"They're meant to appeal to a broad audience and have some fun with it, too," she said.
Georgia's lottery is the 16th-biggest in the world in terms of total sales.
Georgia's first lotteries took place in 1784 and '85 to raise funds for a hospital and poorhouse for indigent sailors in Savannah, she said.
Despite the controversy that sometimes surrounds them, they have a long and honorable history in our country, she argued. George Washington used a lottery to raise funds for the Continental Army and Thomas Jefferson used them to fund public projects.
"In fact, Jefferson called lotteries "a tax for the willing,'" she said.
Among the colleges supported by lottery before the Civil War were Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Princeton, she said.
The various games offered by the Lottery have varied odds. The steepest are the 190 million-to-1 odds of winning the Powerball game. The odds for the Megamillions game slightly better - 175 million-to-1.
"Tell your friends the odds are very long, so don't go crazy spending money on this stuff," she warned. "It's crazy to spend much money when the odds are that long."
More advice: When you buy a ticket, turn it over and sign it, especially if it's a winning ticket.
"Whoever brings it to us signed on the back is who we pay. We have no way of knowing who bought it. And play responsibly no matter which game you play," she said.
"We know many of you have benefited and we hope as Georgia's employers you help us 'sell' the benefit of HOPE and pre-K to your potential employees OR to businesses thinking of locating here. And we hope, periodically at least, you have a little fun for our serious cause and play the lottery. After all, today could be the day!"
Bill Kinney is associate editor of The Marietta Daily Journal.
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