Iowa Lottery posted a record-setting year

DES MOINES - The Iowa Lottery posted a record-setting year in both collections and prize money, even as ticket sales for the multi-state Powerball dropped off.

Annual ticket sales for fiscal year 2013, which ran from July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013, totaled $339.3 million, Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich said during a news conference Wednesday at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Des Moines.

It was the highest total in the 28-year history of the lottery.

Prizes from lottery games totaled $200.8 million, marking the first time prizes topped the $200 million mark. Proceeds from the games for the state totaled $84.9 million, surpassing the previous high of $80.9 million in fiscal year 2006. Lottery proceeds mostly go to the state's general fund with a percentage earmarked for the Veterans Trust Fund. In 2013, the earmark was worth $2.1 million.

“This was an incredible year for the Iowa Lottery,” Rich said. “We had a very strong year, a very successful year, and we imagine that trend will continue.”

Rich said revenue was fueled by sales of Powerball tickets, which twice had jackpots in excess of $500 million and two more than $300 million, even though individual Powerball ticket sales were down.

“We're selling - and I'm going to estimate here - somewhere between 10 to 15 percent less tickets but, obviously, twice the dollar value in those tickets, so you actually make more money when it's all said and done,” he said.

Powerball tickets went from $1 to $2 a pop on Jan. 15, 2012.

The KJH Family LLC collected the largest Iowa prize last fiscal year, a whopping $202.1 million Powerball jackpot. The LLC was formed by Mary and Brian Lohse, a certified medical assistant and an attorney from Bondurant who purchased the winning ticket at a Casey's in Bondurant on Sept. 26.

It was the second-largest lottery prize in Iowa history. The couple chose a lump sum option of $129.8 million. The after-tax prize was $90.9 million after $32.4 million in federal taxes and $6.5 million in state taxes were withheld from the lump-sum prize.

Multi-state prize awards are calculated based on how much each contributing state puts into the overall pot, and that's why lottery officials say they paid out just more than $200 million in prizes, even though the total jackpot for the KJH Family LLC surpassed that figure. Powerball is played in 43 states, Washington, D.C., and the US Virgin Islands.

A Hy-Vee supermarket in Cedar Rapids generated the most lottery sales of any single location in the state. It's also the only location with more than $1 million in sales.

Rich credited the store's location and store management, which “really likes the lottery and has always been supportive.”