"That $56 million increase in Scratch-off sales was thanks to a continued focus on marketing and sales strategies," said Tom Delacenserie, president and CEO of the Kentucky Lottery. "Coming off a record year in FY18 with this kind of a sales jump in FY19 is a massive accomplishment by any set of metrics," said Delacenserie. "Equally impressive is the dedication and commitment to excellence shown by the entire Kentucky Lottery staff and our retail partners across the Commonwealth. I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish."
KENTUCKY LOTTERY SALES AND PROCEEDS SET NEW RECORD IN FISCAL YEAR 2019
In today's meeting of the Kentucky Lottery Corporation's Board of Directors, the group learned the results of Fiscal Year 2019 sales. These included:
* Total sales of $1,129,655,000, which is $87.1 million more (8.4% higher) than the previous record set in FY18.
* Transfers totaled $272.7M, of which $263.9M went to the General Fund to pay for college scholarships, grants and education programs, and $8.8M from unclaimed prizes to the KEES Reserve Fund. The General Fund transfers were $10.9 million or 4.3% more than last year.
Both of these numbers are record levels in the Lottery's 30-year history.
Scratch-off tickets once again were the largest individual game category, finishing the year at $669.2 million. This is a $56 million (9.1%) increase from the previous year.
"That $56 million increase in Scratch-off sales was thanks to a continued focus on marketing and sales strategies," said Tom Delacenserie, president and CEO of the Kentucky Lottery. Some of these strategies included the February launch of the Lottery's first $30 Scratch-off ticket as part of the organization's 30th anniversary, and the continued marketing of families (or collections) of like-themed games at different price points.
Internet lottery sales also showed significant growth, due in large part to the first full year of sales of Keno tickets via the iLottery platform and the introduction of new Instant Play games. iLottery sales finished the year at $26.8 million, up over 82% from the $14.7 million in FY18.
Mega Millions saw the largest percentage increase of any game, rising 58.6% ($23.3 million) to $63.1 million. The increase was due in large part to a $1.5 billion run the game saw in October 2018.
"Coming off a record year in FY18 with this kind of a sales jump in FY19 is a massive accomplishment by any set of metrics," said Delacenserie. "Equally impressive is the dedication and commitment to excellence shown by the entire Kentucky Lottery staff and our retail partners across the Commonwealth. I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish."
In other business, the board approved:
* A contract extension, 2% raise and bonus structure for Delacenserie. His contract will now run through June 30, 2021.
* A contract renewal through September 30, 2020 with Bandy Carroll Hellige for traditional advertising and related services, and
* Rules and regulations for 12 scratch-off tickets and seven Instant Play games.
The next meeting of the KLC's board of directors will be September 27th. The meeting will begin at 10:00 AM EST, and will be held at the KLC headquarters at 1011 West Main Street in Louisville. The audit committee meeting will begin at 8:30 AM EST, as well as the procurement committee at 9:00 AM EST.
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