BOSTON (SHNS) – With one month left in the fiscal year, the Massachusetts Lottery is close on the heels of its profit pace of last year but would have to close a roughly $31 million gap in June if it is to match its record-setting haul.

Sales were down $32 million last month compared to May 2021, but the Lottery produced a $12.9 million year-over-year increase in net profit thanks to a sizeable decrease in the amount of scratch ticket winnings that were claimed and a drop in the monthly prize payout percentage, according to a presentation that Interim Executive Director Mark William Bracken gave Tuesday to the Lottery Commission.

The Lottery has generated an estimated profit of $1.037 billion through 11 months of fiscal year 2022, already surpassing the full year estimate of about $995 million that Treasurer Deborah Goldberg told lawmakers and Baker administration officials in December that they could expect as state revenue this year.

With one month to go, the Lottery is running $30.8 million behind last year’s pace, Bracken’s presentation said. The Lottery produced a record $1.112 billion in profit in fiscal 2021 for the Legislature to use as local aid despite having to navigate the consumer and economic changes brought upon by the pandemic.

Goldberg’s early estimate for fiscal year 2023 Lottery profits (which become state revenue used for local aid) was roughly $1 billion. Bracken also updated the commission Tuesday on the agency’s mobile ticket-scanning and prize-claiming app, which registered more than 5,700 new accounts last month. More than 48,000 people used the app last month to scan more than 2.6 million tickets.

About 18 percent of all eligible prizes — those between $601 and $5,000 — were claimed via the app last month, according to the Lottery. Since the Lottery’s app launched in very late 2020, more than 20,500 mobile claims have been processed, totaling almost $27 million in mobile prizes claimed.

https://www.wwlp.com/news/massachusetts/lottery-keeping-pace-despite-casino-competition/