Following are just three stories that reflect a challenge facing ALL lotteries around the globe.  As things to return to a “normal” that includes a return to casinos and other gaming venues, what can Team Lottery do to preserve the high player-ship of the last couple years, keep the sales momentum going, and continue to increase funds transferred to Good Causes?

Nine months through fiscal 2023, the Massachusetts Lottery is running $17.4 million behind its profit mark at this point last year

Published by MassLive.com

 Apr. 26, 2022

Sales at the Masrecord-setting profit pace of the last fiscal year.

Interim Executivsachusetts Lottery dipped last month by nearly $20 million compared to March 2021 and the slump dropped the Lottery slightly behind the e Director Mark William Bracken told the Lottery Commission on Tuesday morning that March sales totaled $460.6 million, a roughly 4% decline from March 2021. Year-to-date sales for fiscal 2022 stand at $4.47 billion, $99 million more than through the same nine months of fiscal 2021.

The sales dip combined with an increase in scratch ticket prize claims and the processing of a multi-state jackpot game prize settlement to yield an $11.1 million drop in monthly profit for March — $70.9 million last month compared to $82 million in March 2021.

Nine months through fiscal 2023, the Lottery is running $17.4 million behind its profit mark at this point in fiscal 2021.

Liz Giffen, the Lottery’s director of digital operations, told the commission that a digital advertising campaign that ran from Feb. 22 to March 22 was successful in driving more players to download and use the agency’s app, which allows players to scan tickets to check if they have won and to register to claim certain prizes remotely.

“During March, we had our second-highest month for overall account registrations, bringing in 8,700 new players, which is significant. That’s only the second-highest behind January,” Giffen said. “And then also there was a 29% increase on mobile claims for winning tickets between $601 to $5,000, making it also our second-highest month for total mobile claims since we launched the program back in September of 2021, with a total of 3,148 mobile claims.”

Bracken said that between 17% and 18% of eligible Lottery prizes (prizes of between $601 and $5,000 that otherwise would need to be paid out at a Lottery claim center) are now being cashed on the app rather than at a physical Lottery location. More than $20 million in prizes has been paid out via the mobile app, he said.

https://www.masslive.com/news/2022/04/nine-months-through-fiscal-2023-the-massachusetts-lottery-is-running-174-million-behind-its-profit-mark-at-this-point-last-year.html

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Fiscal Year Lottery Revenue Down for Third Quarter in Louisiana

Published by Bossier Press-Tribune

By BPT Staff

April 26, 2022 

BATON ROUGE – For the third quarter of fiscal year 2022, the Louisiana Lottery Corporation transferred more than $47.6 million to the state treasury, bringing total year-to-date contributions to more than $143 million. This represents a decrease of $13.7 million from the first three quarters of fiscal year 2021.

With revenue of $147,870,376 the Lottery’s total third-quarter state transfers were $47,644,637 or 32.2%. Since the Lottery began operations in 1991, it has brought in more than $12.1 billion in revenue and transferred nearly $4.3 billion to the state treasury.

“At a first glance, the decrease in Lottery fiscal year revenue may be surprising,” noted Lottery President Rose Hudson. “We anticipated our sales would reflect the easing of pandemic restrictions and the return of other gaming options. After two years of record sales levels, we are pleased our current sales level are exceeding prepandemic levels. This is thanks in no small part to the budgetary flexibility afforded to us by the legislature, which has allowed us to increase prize payouts. Our players love that and have truly responded.”

Retailers earn 5% sales commission, plus incentives for cashing winning tickets and bonuses for selling big winning tickets. For January through March of 2022, retailer compensation totaled nearly $8.5 million, bringing total fiscal-year-to-date retailer earnings to more than $24.9 million.

Over the last couple of years, the Lottery began adjusting scratch-off game prize structures, increasing prize payouts, adding more higher price-point games and launching new types of games. This strategy has been well received by players, resulting in net gains for the state.

https://bossierpress.com/fiscal-year-lottery-revenue-down-for-third-quarter/

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West Virginia Lottery numbers show players heading back to casinos

April 27, 2022

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Lottery Director John Myers says recent lottery revenues show patrons are beginning to return to the five casinos in West Virginia in larger numbers.

Myers told members of the state Lottery Commission Wednesday, Racetrack Video Lottery brought in $42.5 million in March while table games grossed $3.2 million in revenue.

“The numbers are starting to reflect that people are going back out into these larger venues and so we’re seeing the rise of casino play for video lottery and table games and that’s a positive thing,” Myers said.

It’s been a little over two years since the pandemic began and while local video lottery locations, Limited Video Lottery, has brought in some of its highest revenue ever after a brief pandemic shutdown, casinos have been slower to recover. 888 Casino is one of the online casinos people frequent.

“Patrons didn’t want to be in large groups and that was reflected there. Now there seems to be with some of the masking restrictions being removed and people being willing to go back out, we’re seeing that in the numbers to play,” Myers said.

Limited Video Lottery brought in $46.8 million in March, a roughly 4% increase.

$1 billion in sales again

Myers said the Lottery passed the $1 billion gross sales mark for the year a few days ago. The only time the mark wasn’t hit in more than a dozen years was in 2020, the pandemic year.

“That’s always a goal we have every year. Hitting it this early in the year we’ll probably end up at $1.25 billion or $1.3 billion for the (fiscal) year,” Myers said.

iGaming continues to outperform

The Lottery’s iGaming offerings continued its strong showing in March bringing in $1.4 million in revenue. By comparison, sports betting brought the state $281,000 in revenue over the same time period.

“We really didn’t know what to expect when we first introduced (iGaming),” Myers said. “We had estimates but these are performing above estimate and we think that’s going to end up in the $11 million to $12 million range for the (fiscal) year.

The Lottery Commission’s next meeting is set for May 25.

https://wvmetronews.com/2022/04/27/lottery-numbers-show-players-heading-back-to-casinos/