For Immediate Release
Thursday, April 5, 2018
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Mary Neubauer
515-725-7906
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SALES OF LOTTERY SCRATCH TICKETS IN IOWA SET NEW OVERALL MONTHLY RECORD
March 2018 Saw The Iowa Lottery’s Highest Monthly Sales Ever For Scratch Games
Editors/News Directors, note: Digital images in JPEG and EPS formats of the Iowa Lottery logo are available on the lottery website at: https://ialottery.com/Pages/Pressroom/LAP_CorporateLogos.aspx
CLIVE, Iowa – Sales of lottery instant-scratch tickets in Iowa set an all-time monthly record in March, helped by the release of a game with oversized, double-sided tickets.
The Iowa Lottery’s scratch-game sales totaled nearly $24 million in March, an increase of more than $900,000 from the lottery’s previous monthly sales record for that product set a year earlier. That previous record, of $23.04 million, was hit in March 2017.
Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich said that the lottery continues to concentrate on the mix of games it has in the field, and likes to try new innovations, like the double-sided “Colossal Crossword” game that debuted March 5. A scratch game was the first product introduced by the Iowa Lottery back when it started in 1985, and scratch tickets have traditionally been the lottery’s leading sales category.
“We know that our players look for variety and new options in our games just like they do with other items they choose to buy,” Rich said. “Part of the fun for us is investigating new ideas about what we think will appeal to players, and then releasing the resulting products to see if our predictions will hold true. It’s all part of our mission to provide entertainment to the public while raising proceeds for the vital state programs that benefit all Iowans.”
The lottery’s top three months for scratch-ticket sales have all been in March, from 2016 to 2018:
March 2018: $23.96 million
March 2017: $23.04 million
March 2016: $22.75 million
“We’ve theorized that maybe there’s a spring-fever phenomenon that gets all of us out ad about more in March after the long winter, and that could be reflected in our numbers,” Rich said.
Since the Iowa Lottery’s start in 1985, its players have won more than $4.1 billion in prizes while the lottery has raised more than $1.8 billion for state causes.
Today, lottery proceeds in Iowa have three main purposes: They provide support for Iowa veterans and their families through the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund; help for a variety of significant projects through the state General Fund; and backing for the Vision Iowa program, which was implemented to create tourism destinations and community attractions in the state and build and repair schools.
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