The Kentucky Lottery Corporation’s Board of Directors learned the results of Fiscal Year 2018 sales at its meeting Friday.
These included:
• Sales of $1,042,512,000 (up $42 million or 4.2 percent from FY17)
• Cash dividends to the General Fund of $253,000,000, which is $11.4 million or 4.7 percent more than FY17.
Both of these numbers are record levels in the Lottery’s 29-year history.
Scratch-off tickets once again were the largest individual game category, finishing the year at $613.1 million. This is a $9.3 million (1.5 percent) increase from the previous year. Mega Millions saw the largest percentage increase of any game, rising 36.9 percent ($10.7 million) to $39.8 million. The increase was due in large part to several large jackpot runs over the course of FY18. Powerball also saw solid jackpot performance, helping that game realize $77.9 million in sales (up 8.0 percent).
Daily draw games continued to perform strongly, as Pick 3 sales rose to $149.7 million (up 3.0 percent) and Cash Ball 225 sales rose to $11.5 million (up 10.7 percent). Pick 4 sales declined slightly to $43.5 million (down 2.6 percent).
Keno continued its positive growth trend, ending the year with $82.8 million (up 9.3 percent). iLottery internet sales also rose from $5.2 million in FY17 to $10.3 million in FY18.
“Several new initiatives really helped push sales to this record-breaking level,” said KLC President and CEO Tom Delacenserie. “An increased emphasis on marketing and in-store messaging, changes in prize structures that players really liked, and new measures implemented by our outstanding staff and retailers are the reason for this increase. FY18 was a year where we laid the groundwork for continued success, so we look to continue this growth pattern into FY19.”
In other business, the board approved rules and regulations for eight scratch-off tickets and seven iLottery games, along with amended Powerball and Mega Millions rules. The board also re-elected Mark F. Sommer as chair and Jan Buddeke as vice chair.
