We have the early numbers for our latest fiscal year, and it will be in our Top 4 overall. Record sales of scratch tickets led the way in fiscal year 2017 and the Iowa Lottery finished the year well ahead of budget projections.
The biggest difference from 2016’s record results came in the sales total for Powerball®, which saw a world-record jackpot of nearly $1.6 billion in January 2016 and had enormous sales in Iowa and across the country. There won’t be a world-record jackpot every year! We understand that lottery results can and do fluctuate over time, which is why we budget conservatively.
The preliminary results show that the Iowa Lottery generated nearly $81 million in proceeds to state causes in FY 2017, which ended June 30. It’s the fourth time that annual proceeds have topped the $80-million mark in the lottery’s 32-year history. Annual lottery sales were $352.2 million, exceeding the $300 million mark for the sixth year in a row. Prizes to players totaled $215.6 million, while lottery sales commissions to local businesses across the state totaled nearly $23 million.
In general, the particular type of lottery product that sells best in a given time period has a big impact on overall lottery results. For example, scratch games have a smaller profit margin than do lotto games like Powerball and Mega Millions. So in a year like FY 2017 when scratch tickets sell particularly well, lottery profits will likely be a smaller percentage of total sales simply because scratch games have a smaller profit margin overall. In a year when lotto tickets sell particularly well as they did in FY 2016, lottery profit margins will likely be higher.
Scratch games achieved record results in FY 2017 for a third straight year, with sales totaling $237.6 million. That’s an increase of nearly $4 million from the previous record that had just been set in FY 2016.
We always remember that lottery products are an optional purchase. We’ll do our best to take care of the behind-the-scenes work so you as our customers can just have fun playing.
So who were Iowa’s biggest lottery winners in FY 2017? Four Iowa Lottery players claimed prizes of at least $1 million during the year:
Winner City Game Prize Claimed
Jeff Wolf Iowa City Powerball $2 million April 27, 2017
Karl Krumbholz Cedar Rapids Powerball $2 million March 17, 2017
Jeff Tomlinson Jr. Coralville Powerball $1 million Oct. 7, 2016
Rick Breuss Jr. West Des Moines Mega Millions $1 million July 18, 2016
congratulations to those million dollar winners... now I want to be one too... I will keep playing til it happens ..
Posted by: barb brown | July 29, 2017 at 08:08 PM