Kentucky Lottery sales have closed the first half of the fiscal year higher than any other period in the organization’s history.
July-December sales for the lottery came in at $544.2 million. That’s a full $36.5 million (7.2%) more than the same period last year, which was the previous record-holder for the six month sales period.
Net income in turn grew at an even higher percentage. This was $147 million for the period, which is $16.5 million (12.6%) more than what was generated in the same period last year.
According to Lottery President and CEO Tom Delacenserie, the $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot run has been a huge factor in the success.
“We’ve nearly sold as many Mega Millions in the first six months of the fiscal year as we expected to sell for the entire year,” he said.
Sales for the game in this period were $42.1 million, a whopping $24.5 million (138.8%) increase.
Delacenserie also pointed to stronger-than-anticipated scratch-off ticket sales. That category has $310.3 million in sales, up $15.5 million (5.3%) from the previous period last year. Sales of the lottery’s $20 tickets in particularly have jumped, seeing a nearly 82% sales increase from the previous year.
“We have several new initiatives we’re not quite ready to talk about on tap for the rest of the fiscal year, so this trend of success looks to be the roadmap moving forward in FY19,” Delacenserie said. He also predicted strong sales should lead to the lottery’s third straight year of sales in excess of $1 billion.
