If you're stuffing some holiday stockings with lottery tickets, you're likely not alone.

A lot of folks have jackpot wins on their Christmas lists.

The state's largest Powerball jackpot, over 165 million, was won in April, and the Kentucky Lottery has made millionaires out of more than a dozen people in a year's time.

More than 124 players won 100 grand or more over a 12 month period.

So if you play and win, can you keep it a secret?

I talked with the outgoing president of the Kentucky Lottery about that and more in part two of my interview with Mary Harville.

Representative Kim Banta from Northern Kentucky, who had proposed for a few years in anonymity over $1 million of prize, that you could protect your identity and not have to reveal that you had been a winner.

Are you for that?

And why is that a bad or a good idea?

Okay, well, I didn't know you're going to ask me any hard questions, right?

Well, there's two sides to that story.

Okay.

There are with many laws.

So there are many good reasons for the anonymity law.

And some states have that.

I probably I'm thinking about 5050 now.

Have them.

People want the protection of being able to go about their lives.

Right.

And and and not have to have that consistent people reaching out.

Change your phone number and all that.

The other side of it for us, and we supported that.

We supported her law.

But the other side of it for us is that people want to know, right?

People want to know who won, because that gives us more integrity to be able to have a winner here.

Not all winners want that publicity, but many of them are realistic about what will happen when you win.

You know, $1 billion or even 500 million.

When you win that much money, do you really think you're going to be able to keep it under wraps?

Is the lottery involved in making sure that that person who's earned that substantial windfall of cash can manage that money appropriately for longevity?

Well, we have no official role in advising people, but we do.

Okay.

So we will advise people.

And when I go out at these events, when we're advertising the jackpot, I always say you don't have to take any action right away.

If you've bought the ticket a retail, just sign the back of the ticket.

You really shouldn't tell anybody right away, except perhaps your significant other might want to know.

But get a team together.

Think about what you really want to do when you win.

These life changing, generation altering amounts of money, you need to take your time.

Get your team together.

You can afford, a wealth management lawyer.

You can afford a CPA, actually, a whole team of them, to be able to invest the money the way that it should be invested in order to be there for generations to come.

So take your time.

Don't tell everybody.

You don't have to go out and buy things.

And one of the things that I have learned over the years of being able to talk to our players is that's what they do.

They do their very consider and deliberate about what they want to do with their money.

And when we have these events, I'll go and ask the players, what would you do if you want?

95% of the people will say, I want to.

I want to make sure my kids have the college education that I perhaps didn't get, or I want to take care of my elderly parents, I want to I want to help cure cancer.

I want to give to my church.

Number one answer.

Last event we did just a few weeks ago.

I want to give back to my church.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, that's that's that's lovely to hear.

It's not about I'm going to go buy a yacht, somewhere, which I still may do, but that they're thinking more about others.

I also want to ask you a couple of questions, too, about education, because you alluded to that.

And when the whole lottery idea came to be and then and then 1980s, there was a lot of question and optimism that this would fund education.

And for a long time, even though maybe that didn't happen the way it should have, and the robust manner in which it had.

And then the General Assembly stepped in and said, okay, you got a got to do, right.

Talk to us about how Kentucky kids benefit and at what levels of education can they benefit.

Of course.

Well, you got it exactly right.

At first, it was just that the lottery proceeds would go to the general fund.

Well, that changed in 1999 when the legislators decided that it should be directed to college scholarships and grants.

And there were still a lot on the books, though.

That said, the lottery couldn't advertise where the funds go.

2014 that changed, right?

So we could advertise.

And we do.

I'm sure you see it.

We're out there all the time with our mortar boards, and we want to be able to advertise that.

So it's college scholarships and grants, and most people know about the K scholarship program that we fund.

And that's, based on your grades.

And in high school, 19 1112 and your, active score.

So you can get about, $2,500 a semester or a $5,000 a year.

And that is not insignificant for you got to stay in Kentucky, which is what we want, right?

Right.

So it can be very impactful.

And I like to say that, of course, Keith came along after I graduated, but the reason for KS is to get those Kentucky students to stay right here in Kentucky.

And that's what I did.

And that's why I like to go out and talk about our mission, because you can do what you want to do.

You can be what you want to be right here in Kentucky.

Yeah.

And of course, we fund some other scholarships as well.

And we're really trying very hard to highlight those.

We have a couple of need based scholarships for public and private Kentucky universities, and we fund a teacher scholarship and a National Guard scholarship.

And when I've talked to the beneficiaries of those scholarships, it's been very impactful.

As we approach a budget making session.

And a lot of maids, that will be petitioned for and, what are you concerned about?

Well, as you, as you know, the need is going to be limitless.

I think the federal guidelines were changed for federal aid some time ago.

It broadened the the, eligibility for, the keys program.

And the need is going to be greater than ever.

You'll never be able to fulfill that need.

So of course, that is a concern.

We would want to be able to fulfill all the needs of if we could, and of course, the next challenge is how to get the younger players.

We know that the young folks love everything they can do on their phone, and they can.

They can buy a lottery on the phone.

A lottery.com.

They can play online.

At a certain age.

At 18, right?

Yes.

You do have to be 18.

So we we will have a challenge to be able to get those younger players to want to play lottery.

It is lottery.

It is not skill.

It's a game of chance.

But when we look at sports wagering, we see that that is involve some skill.

And it also combines that skill and sports that they so love.

Yeah, convenience matters and we've got to really make it easy for them.

And then they've got to we've got to partnership because we know that they love sports wagering.

But how can we do business with the FanDuel in the DraftKings to be able to be in that arena as well?

And you know very well the dynamics of the state legislature that, lean a little bit more conservative is particularly on some of these issues of chance and gaming, etc.. Does that concern you that, there could just not be an appetite for expanding the forms and access, regardless of the aid and particularly to the young people?

Well, you'd like to say that is a problem.

And yet you see what what we're doing now, I mean, we've got we've got gaming in Kentucky and we've got a lot of it.

It should be regulated and handled appropriately.

So.

Well, why do you say, oh, you know, there might not be an appetite for it.

It's like, you better look and see what you're already doing and then decide how you want to regulate it going forward.

Mary Harville is retiring from the Kentucky Lottery in February of next year.

She says she's most proud of the Kentuckians she's met who've benefited from the education dollars contributed by the lottery that help fund their higher education goals, that put them on a path to a new career and a larger life.