Pennsylvanians have kept on scratching. For the 10th straight year, the PA Lottery has brought in more than a billion dollars.
The just-concluded fiscal year record booked more than $1.3 billion for assistance to senior citizen support programs, including property tax and rent rebates, free and reduced-fare transportation, and prescription assistance.
Traditional lottery games carried the weight
The record was driven by more than $5 billion in traditional games sales, such as scratch-off tickets and multi-state draws, such as Powerball and Mega Millions.
Keno was the only game with a sales decline, down 11.7% to $41.6 million.
The Lottery’s last record year was in the 2018-19 fiscal year. Then it had $4.5 billion in sales and had a profit of $1.1 billion.
iLottery kicked in and also set a record
An online lottery record of $887 million in sales from internet play was also set. Online games are just more than three years old. A legal challenge by a coalition of casinos against the lottery’s sponsorship of the games was recently dismissed.
Online players claimed more than $772.1 million. That’s an increase of $135 million from the last fiscal year.
Record set despite a recent warning from lottery director
The new record was set despite its executive director, Drew Svitko, warning in June that unlicensed grey skill machines threaten the Lottery.
Svitko said in a prepared statement:
“We are extremely proud that we kept funds flowing to programs that benefit older Pennsylvanians during a year when many sorely needed this assistance.”
Lottery by the numbers
Scratch-offs made up nearly 71% of lottery sales for the fiscal year ending in June, totaling nearly $3.8 billion, up 17% from the year prior.
Draw games, such as Powerball and Mega Millions, accounted for 25% with $1.3 billion in sales. The Pick 3 game was the third most popular bringing in $305 million, accounting for nearly 5.8% of sales.
The Lottery said several large Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots drove sales in the fiscal year, including a $516 Mega Millions jackpot ticket sold in May in Bucks County. A third weekly Powerball drawing beginning at the end of the month should further boost sales.
During the past fiscal year, 97 tickets won $1 million or more.
Retailers in PA earned $329 million in sales commissions during the period, up $71 million from the 2019-20 fiscal year.
Lead image via Dreamstime.
