The North Carolina Education Lottery (NCEL) on Monday transferred more than $86.2 million to the State Education Lottery Fund.

The transfer brings the tally for the fiscal year to $419.5 million, exceeding the goal set for fiscal year 2010. This most recent transfer is for April, May and part of June.

With the transfer, the lottery now has contributed more than $1.556 billion to education in North Carolina since it was launched in March 2006, according to a news release. Overall sales have now surpassed $4.897 billion as of June 27, 2010.

More than 95 cents of every dollar spent on the lottery is returned to North Carolina in the form of beneficiary programs, prizes and retailer commissions.

“We are pleased that more and more North Carolinians enjoy playing the games we offer,” said Tom Shaheen, NCEL executive director. “Our goal continues to be to raise as much money as we can for education in North Carolina.”

The Lottery Act designates that 50 percent of proceeds is to be split between pre-kindergarten programs for at-risk 4-year-olds and class-size reduction in the early grades; 40 percent to school construction; and 10 percent to college scholarships.

For anyone wanting detailed information on where the money has gone, the NCEL’s 2009 beneficiary brochure is available online at nc-educationlottery.org. The brochure includes county-by-county totals for each of the four programs.