On April 8, 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Assembly Bill 142 (Hayashi, D-Hayward).

The new allocation increased to at least 87% the portion of Lottery revenue returned to the public, and correspondingly decreased to a maximum of 13% the amount spent on administration.

It then specified that "not less than 50% of the total annual Lottery revenues, in an amount to be determined by the commission, be returned to the public in the form of prizes."

It also imposed requirements "to ensure continued growth in Lottery net revenues allocated to public education", with annual procedures that would, "in any one of the first 5 full fiscal years after the enactment of this measure, ... provide for the repeal of the changes made by this measure on the following January 1, and the prior law to be restored", if those requirements were not then met.

[3][4] This bill follows the practice of "other large state lottery systems, including Texas, North Carolina, and Florida, which have shown an increase in revenue through similar changes.

George Deukmejian appointed the first Lottery commissioners: William Johnston, Laverta Montgomery, John Price, Howard Varner, and Kennard Webster.

[8][9][10] On 12 March 2012, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Gregory J. Ahern to the commission, who was also elected as Sheriff of Alameda County in 2006.

George Deukmejian appointed the first Lottery commissioners: William Johnston, Laverta Montgomery, John Price, Howard Varner, and Kennard Webster.

[7] The Act mandated an extremely tight timeline for establishing the Lottery and bringing it to operational status.

To comply, the state government immediately built the Lottery's original headquarters in only three months in the Richards neighborhood of Sacramento (just north of downtown).

[13] In 1996, as a result of a lawsuit by a pachinko parlor and an association of owners and trainers of race horses,[14] the Supreme Court of California unanimously struck down the lottery's implementation of keno, ruling that it was a house-banked game, not a lottery game, which at that time was illegal anywhere in California.

[15] Subsequently, California Attorney General Dan Lungren also ruled that Daily 3, which at the time had fixed payouts, also was illegal because it created an interest on the part of the state that fewer people should win, contrary to a lottery where the operator has no stake in the outcome of the draw.

[16] In response to these rulings, the Lottery modified Keno and created Hot Spot, which has a pari-mutuel payout format, and modified Daily 3 to a pari-mutuel format where payouts vary depending on the number of individuals who picked the winning numbers.

In September 2011, the California Lottery moved into a new $58 million headquarters at 700 North 10th Street right next to the old one, which was promptly demolished.

Because the original headquarters was built in a frantic 90-day rush to comply with the Lottery Act, it suffered from numerous construction defects in the roof, foundation, and elevator, as well as a mold problem.

However, in February 2012 the California Lottery initiated an impact analysis of the Powerball game, in preparation for a recommendation in July 2012.

The remaining 24 payments increased by 0.1 percentage point yearly, so that the final (26th) installment represented 5.1% of the annuity.

Unlike the other Mega Millions members, California currently does not offer the Megaplier, which is drawn in Texas by a random number generator.

Topper: Each SuperLotto Plus ticket automatically was printed with the names of three of California's 100 then-most-populous-cities(e.g. Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento).

If the player wagered an additional $1, they were eligible to win up to $25,000 in the Topper drawing, which was drawn by random number generator.

Make Me a Millionaire, the California Lottery's second TV game show, debuted on January 17, 2009, for an initial four-year run with host Mark L. Walberg and co-presenter Liz Hernandez.

[39] On May 4, 2010, the California Lottery announced the show's cancellation due to poor ratings, with the last program telecast on July 3, 2010.

[40] After the TV show was canceled, winners of the "Make Me a Millionaire" Scratchers games, which were sold until June 25, 2010, had until December 22, 2010, to claim their opportunities to play and win prizes off the air.

[42] Five unaired episodes of Make Me A Millionaire were produced and made available for viewing on the Lottery's YouTube channel.

Because many of the 44 Mega Millions participants have a one-year claim period, the California legislature changed the language in the Lottery Act.

Scratchers tickets are generally one-payment prizes; however, some games have annuity options for payments each year, or per week.

Until 2005, when California joined Mega Millions, the payment choice on SuperLotto Plus had to be made when the ticket was bought.

Unclaimed prizes remaining after the claim period expires always go to supporting California's public schools.

Bakersfield - KBAK-TV El Centro, CA/Yuma, AZ - KYMA-DT Eureka - KIEM-TV Fresno - KFSN Los Angeles - KCAL-TV Monterey/Salinas - KION-TV Palm Springs - KMIR-TV Redding/Chico - KRVU-LD Sacramento - KTXL San Diego/Tijuana - KSWB-TV San Francisco - KRON-TV Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo/Santa Maria - KSBY On March 15, 2022, former lottery Investigator Reid Galbreath released a book titled "What Are The Odds?

Galbreath exposed several instances of the lottery misappropriating public funds meant for education and ignoring/violating established regulations against such conduct.