
The Iowa Lottery’s annual results are out today, with sales, proceeds to state causes, and prizes to players all finishing near the previous year’s record highs despite strong inflationary headwinds in recent months. Fiscal year 2022 ultimately yielded the lottery’s second-highest results in its 37-year history.
The preliminary figures show that the Iowa Lottery generated $97.9 million in proceeds to state causes in the fiscal year that ended June 30. Annual lottery sales in FY 2022 were $432.7 million, while prizes to players totaled $274.2 million. Lottery sales commissions paid to the local Iowa businesses that sell tickets totaled $28.3 million for the year.
FY 2022 is just the second time that annual Iowa Lottery sales topped $400 million and the third time that its total proceeds to state causes exceeded $90 million.
High fuel costs have historically had the most direct impact on the sale of lottery scratch games, and that was evident again in FY 2022. Fuel prices in Iowa began to climb in the spring and by mid-May, the average retail diesel price was above $5 a gallon and retail unleaded gasoline had topped $4 a gallon.
Scratch-ticket sales in May were down 17.5 percent compared to the same month in 2021, and down 14.7 percent in June compared to the same time period the previous year.
Annual scratch-ticket sales were down 7.5 percent in Iowa, with the product category representing about 2/3 of total Iowa Lottery sales.
At the same time, the lotto category was positively impacted by the Powerball® and Lucky for Life® game groups’ decisions to increase the number of weekly drawings in those games. In July 2021, Lucky for Life moved from two drawings per week to daily drawings. In August of that year, Powerball moved to three drawings per week with the addition of Monday drawings.
Both games saw marked sales increases in FY 2022, with Lucky for Life sales increasing 45.3 percent and Powerball sales increasing 22.2 percent.
The biggest prize won in Iowa for the year was a $2 million Powerball prize claimed in January by a New Hampton woman.
The Top 10 retailers for lottery sales were in seven different communities, with the Hy-Vee on Johnson Avenue in Cedar Rapids topping the list. That store sold more than $1.2 million in lottery tickets during FY 2022.
Another highlight for the year was the $2.5 million the lottery raised for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund to benefit our state’s veterans and their families. The lottery now has raised more than $34.8 million for the Veterans Trust Fund since it began providing proceeds to that cause in 2008. The lottery also raises proceeds for the Public Safety Survivor Benefits Fund and Department of Corrections Survivor Benefits Fund, which help with insurance costs for the families of Iowa peace officers, fire fighters and corrections employees who die in the line of duty.
Here is a year-to-year comparison of annual sales by lottery product.
Product |
FY 2022 Sales |
FY 2021 Sales |
Scratch games |
$293.1 million |
$316.9 million |
InstaPlay games |
$23.4 million |
$23.5 million |
Pick 3 |
$9.3 million |
$9.5 million |
Powerball |
$53.1 million |
$43.4 million |
Mega Millions |
$20.4 million |
$29 million |
Pick 4 |
$5.6 million |
$5.5 million |
Lucky for Life |
$8.1 million |
$5.6 million |
Lotto America |
$7 million |
$6.4 million |
Pull-tab games |
$12.7 million |
$12.8 million |