Cities and towns could use big lottery jackpots Even those who don’t play the Massachusetts Lottery are affected by the element of luck.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker says good management will keep cities and towns from suffering the effects of bad luck - in this case, the absence of huge jackpots for popular games such as Mega Millions and Powerball.
Big jackpots mean more players. More players mean more revenue for municipalities that rely on the lottery as a major cash source.
Last year, the 47-year-old Lottery set a revenue record that would have been tough to match under ideal circumstances. By contrast, this October, the Lottery lagged nearly $62 million behind the pace of October 2018, a drop of 13 percent.
Governor Charlie Baker says good budget management will keep local returns to cities and towns stable, regardless of whether the revenue numbers rise or fall.
Still, from the standpoint of lottery money going back to municipalities, it pays to root for everyone to lose for awhile. If the jackpot rises, so does the number of players.
Since July 1, Mega Millions was at or below $100 million for 20 of its first 42 drawings. Powerball jackpots were below $100 million in more than two thirds of their drawings, and never reached $200 million.
Lottery executive director Michael Sweeney said were it not for declines in those two games, the Lottery would be headed to another record year. Declines in those multi-state games easily surpassed the overall drop in sales, overshadowing sales increases in many other games.
These are high stakes for the state’s 351 cities and towns, which received $1.1 billion in lottery-generated aid last year. Nearly one-fifth of all lottery revenue goes back to the communities.
Sweeney told the Lottery Commission it would take one or two jackpots of $750,000 to $1 billion to seriously reduce the gap between last year’s sales and the current pace. This week’s Mega Millions jackpot rose to $340 million, the highest in six months.
The Massachusetts Lottery has already proven resilient against competition from other sources, notably legalized casino gaming. Revenue numbers will rise and fall. Hopefully, cities and towns won’t bear the brunt of small big-game jackpots, but just to be safe, a couple of mind-boggling jackpots would be welcomed by town financial departments that are counting on a bigger take from the state.
https://www.masslive.com/opinion/2019/12/cities-and-towns-could-use-big-lottery-jackpots-editorial.html