Public Gaming Magazine July/August 2020

21 PUBLIC GAMING INTERNATIONAL • JULY/AUGUST 2020 PENNSYLVANIA ENJOYS AN ONLINE BOOST While the Pennsylvania Lottery just launched its iLottery platform in May 2018, it has been an eventful two years – two RFPs for operators (as mandated by the Commonwealth’s legisla- tion) and more than $1 billion in revenue. e Lottery has o ered internet instant games from the start, and has added draw games to its online lineup, including Mega Millions and Powerball, which have been available on that platform since January 2020. It has been a busy, eventful two years for the PA Lottery. Add in the past few months, when at one point about 30 percent of the PA Lottery's roughly 9,800 retailers closed because of COVID-19, PA Lottery executives were certainly happy to have iLottery available to players. “During this unprecedented time, we have been seeing incredible growth in PA Lottery online play,” said Pennsylvania Lottery Deputy Executive Director of Marketing and Products Stephanie Weyant. “We are setting new records for play and rst-time depositors, and breaking them just a quickly.” Weyant added, “While we are happy to see a growth in our online play, a majority of our sales still come from our traditional games. Further- more, the increase in online sales is not enough to o set the sales the Lottery has lost on the traditional side of the business since Mid-March. Just to put it in perspective, an estimated 70 per- cent of our business comes from our Scratch-O sales. So, it’s our traditional products that remain the foundation of our business.” Behind the scenes, there are cross-functional teams of lottery, systems, marketing and digital experts at Scienti c Games working together to support the Pennsylvania Lottery’s iLottery pro- gram, with e ective use of powerful CRM tools and bonusing programs that engage and retain players. e growth of the iLottery program in Pennsylvania since the program launched continues to surpass expectations. Based on total wagers, the $1 billion milestone reached just prior to its two-year anniversary makes Pennsyl- vania the most commercially successful iLottery launch in North America to date. During its rst full scal year of iLottery, Pennsylvania traditional lottery sales grew 7.2% over the prior scal year and Scratch-O s alone grew 5.9%. But the month of April is where the Lottery truly saw the potential of this technology start to ramp up. iLottery play was up 35% com- pared with March, with $89.2 million in topline play and $11.4 million in gross gaming revenue (play minus prizes and promotions/bonuses). e number of rst-time players in April was also up 45% over March, with nearly 15,000 new online players. With stay-at-home orders still in place in PA for most of May, that month then broke new records. Online play in May was up 7 percent compared to April with over $95 million in topline online play and $12 million in gross gaming revenue. May was also a record month for deposits, with over 44,000 depositors. Powerball and Mega Millions sales online, which are reported separately, are making up about six percent of overall Powerball and Mega Millions weekly sales, as compared to about two percent in previous months. ese numbers can be largely credited to the management of the entire game portfolio, delivery of exciting iLottery content to the mar- ket, and tools to enable retailer support, while continuing with the strategic management of all traditional lottery products sold at brick-and- mortar retailers. The PA Lottery’s iLottery platform is available on most devices