Iowa Lottery posts second-best sales year

DES MOINES – The Iowa Lottery had its second-best year ever for ticket sales in the recently completed 2010 fiscal year.

Preliminary figures released today show that lottery sales totaled $256.3 million during the 12-month period that ended June 30.

That was the highest sales total since the lottery posted $339.5 million sales during the height of the now-defunct Touch-Play program, and it marks the highest sales total from lotto, instant-scratch and pull-tab games since the lottery's start in 1985.

Iowa Lottery players also had a good year, taking home a record $150.5 million in prizes from the lottery's core products -- a 4 percent increase from the previous record prize total from those products of $144.7 million in fiscal 2008.

Also, unaudited figures show the Iowa Lottery deposited nearly $58 million into the state treasury for fiscal 2010. That was down slightly from the lottery's profits total for the previous year of $56.55 million.

“Bottom line, the Iowa Lottery returned a record $208.4 million to Iowans for the year either directly in prizes or in profits to the state programs that benefit us all.  That's the highest total for prizes and proceeds from our core products in the lottery's history,” said Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich.

 “We feel good about these numbers,” he added. “Compared to the previous year, the lottery returned an additional $12.1 million in prizes directly to players, which made for a positive impact in local communities across the state.”

The addition of the multi-state Mega Millions game in January boosted Iowa sales by $5.5 million in fiscal 2010. That development did not hurt sales for Iowa's existing multi-state lotto product, Powerball, which posted an increase of nearly 2 percent at $59.2 million.

Meanwhile, sales of instant-scratch tickets rose by more than 5 percent to a record $143.8 million in fiscal 2010, topping a previous high of $137.9 million in fiscal 2008.

“We will continue to focus on variety in our products and entertainment for our players while keeping our eye on results,” Rich said.

With a full year of Mega Millions sales and an expanding marketing strategy, the lottery CEO said he expects the current fiscal year to be an even better financial year than the one just ended. He said he believes the lottery is increasing sales while other gambling enterprises are struggling in the current economic climate because players like to buy local and invest in less-expensive games.

Rich noted that the lottery's proceeds to the state were impacted on a couple fronts in fiscal 2010. First, the lottery accrued expenses totaling about $1.5 million related to the State Employee Retirement Incentive Program approved during the last legislative session. The retirement incentive program was not foreseen in the lottery's budget for the year. However, accounting standards required that expenses from the program be recorded during fiscal 2010.

Also, prize payouts, which Rich noted are cyclical and vary over time, were ahead of projections for the year. That's in comparison to fiscal 2009, when prizes in instant-scratch games in particular ran behind prize totals during the same time period a year earlier. Such fluctuations are a function of the random nature of lottery games, which can have variations in a particular year, but average out over time, he said.

Overall, the lottery has raised $5.4 million for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund. When the idea of games dedicated to veterans was initially discussed, the lottery estimated it could raise $2 million to $3 million annually for the trust fund, Rich said. The fiscal 2009 total was $2.8 million, and with another $2.6 million added in the latest year, the lottery has raised $5.4 million for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund in two years.  

Lottery officials plan to continue to create two new instant-scratch and two additional pull-tab games each year, with proceeds from those games dedicated to the Veterans Trust Fund.

The lottery is marking its 25

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anniversary next month during a year when the enterprise likely will top $5 billion in overall sales. During that 25-year run, the Iowa Lottery has generated nearly $1.5 billion in revenue to the state and paid nearly $2.58 billion in prizes.

rod.boshart@gazcomm.com