For the first time in its 28-year history, sales of Kentucky Lottery tickets have exceeded a billion dollars in a single fiscal year.
For FY17 which ended June 30, overall lottery sales were $1,000,501,000. This is the largest sales figure in Kentucky Lottery history, and surpasses last year’s record-breaking number by $3.2 million (0.3%).
Scratch-off tickets once again were the largest individual game category, finishing the year at $603.8 million. This is a $6.5 million (1.1%) increase from the previous year, and was led in large part due to the successful launch of Kentucky’s first oversized scratch off ticket. Called “Big Money”, the $10 ticket was ordered with a quantity that should have lasted 30 weeks. Instead, it sold out in less than three weeks.
Keno saw the largest percentage increase of any game, rising 15% ($9.8 million) to $75.7 million. The increase was due to several changes made to the game, including shortening the time between drawings from five to four minutes and the inclusion of a new multiplier feature.
Daily draw games continued to perform strongly, as Pick 3 sales rose to $145.3 million (up 4.1%), Pick 4 sales rose to $44.6 million (up 4.7%), and Cash Ball 225 sales rose to $10.4 million (up 6.8%).
Powerball sales dropped significantly from the previous year. “Without anything even remotely close to the $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot we saw in January 2016, sales for that game were down 23.6%,” said the Lottery’s President and CEO Tom Delacenserie. “Despite the $22.3 million decline in sales for just this game, the fact that we not only broke our all-time sales record but also the billion threshold is remarkable.”
Transfers to the Commonwealth were also at a record level – $251.6 million, an increase of $2.5 million.
