Skip to main content

Scratch Tix Push Lottery’s March Sales Past Half A Billion

Image
By

Instant ticket sales surged well into the black in March, further buoying the Lottery’s financial performance three-quarters of the way through the fiscal year.

The Lottery sold $366.4 million in instant tickets last month, about $57.5 million more than in March 2022, Interim Executive Director Mark William Bracken told the Lottery Commission on Tuesday. He called it a “very strong increase.”

That burst helped fuel total sales of $519 million in March and represented the majority of Lottery growth over the same stretch a year earlier. All other games besides Mega Millions and Lucky for Life saw decreased sales in March compared to March 2022.

Instant tickets are the most popular Lottery product and typically make up 65 to 70 percent of all sales. For much of fiscal year 2023, instant tickets have sold more slowly than last year, but March’s performance pushed the year-to-date instant ticket haul to $51.3 million, or 1.7 percent more than the same stretch in FY22.

Through the first nine months of the fiscal year, the Lottery’s gross sales total $4.64 billion, an increase of $168.2 million or 3.8 percent over the same period last year. Much of that growth comes from higher sales of draw games during a stretch of record jackpot offerings in the winter.

Bracken estimated the Lottery’s net profit is about $909 million so far this fiscal year, a year-over-year increase of about $73.4 million. The Lottery’s net profits get returned to cities and towns in the form of unrestricted local aid.

House Democrats in their state budget bill are pushing to allow the Lottery to sell its products online and earmark the revenue from that specifically for early education and child care grants.

Gov. Maura Healey, who in 2014 favored a ballot question to repeal the casino law, said recently that she supports online Lottery sales. The Senate voted in 2016 to approve online Lottery authorization, but the House was not on board.

Last year, the House sought to allow online Lottery sales in an economic development bill, but that measure did not survive negotiations with the Senate. Gaming expansion has been cited in pushes to create even more wagering opportunities.

The legalization of sports gambling was cited as a reason to let the Lottery also sell its products online. The legalization of casinos in 2011 followed years of debate, during which supporters said Massachusetts needed to keep pace with gambling offerings in other state.

from Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News
Source: https://ift.tt/Uvoza4Y

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Virginia family gets keys to Habitat for Humanity’s first 3D-printed home in the US

By
(CNN) — One Virginia family received the keys to their new  3D-printed home  in time for Christmas. The home is Habitat for Humanity’s first 3D-printed home in the nation,  according to a Habitat news release. Janet V. Green, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg, told CNN it partnered with Alquist, a 3D printing company, earlier this year to begin the process. The 1,200-square-foot home has three bedrooms, two full baths and was built from concrete. The technology allowed the home to be built in just 12 hours, which saves about four weeks of construction time for a typical home. April Stringfield purchased the home through the  Habitat Homebuyer Program . She will move in with her 13-year-old son just in time for the holidays. “My son and I are so thankful,” Stringfield said in a  live feed streamed on Habitat’s Facebook  page. “I always wanted to be a homeowner. It’s like a dream come true.” To purchase the home, Stringfiel...
Post a Comment
Recent News

Lawsuit: High school football player says coaches forced him to eat pizza as punishment, violating religious beliefs

By
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio high school football player who says coaches forced him to eat a pizza covered with pepperoni grease in violation of his religious beliefs is suing his former district and the ousted coaches. The former Canton McKinley High School athlete and his parents filed a federal civil rights suit this week seeking millions of dollars in damages and alleging violations of his religious freedom and constitutional rights. The athlete says in the lawsuit that coaches were notified he doesn’t eat pork or pork residue as a member of the Hebrew Israelite religious faith, but that they ordered him to eat the pizza as punishment for missing an offseason workout — and indicated his spot on the team was at risk if he didn’t. The coaches say the player chose to remove pepperoni and eat the pizza rather than an alternative food. They weren’t aware it violated his religious beliefs, according to a  defamation case they filed  previously against the teen’s father, his a...
Post a Comment
Recent News

After court victories, Michael Jackson estate eyes revival

By
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Michael Jackson’s musical legacy never left, but a kind of comeback is coming. With a series of court victories that bring the end to serious legal crises, with a Broadway show beginning and a Cirque du Soleil show returning after a long pandemic pause, the Jackson business is on the upswing 12 years after the pop superstar’s death. Very recently, things looked grim. The 2019 HBO documentary “  Leaving Neverland  ” raised child molestation allegations anew. The once-dead lawsuits brought by the two men featured in it had been  revived  by changes in the law. And a decision in the estate’s appeal of a $700 million tax bill was taking years to arrive. “I was always optimistic,” John Branca, the entertainment attorney who worked with Jackson through many of his biggest triumphs and now serves as co-executor of his estate, told The Associated Press in an interview at his Beverly Hills home. “Michael inspired the planet and his music still ...
Post a Comment
Recent News