Kentucky Lottery ticket sales set fiscal year record

A strengthening economy was a primary reason that statewide lottery-ticket sales in the recently ended fiscal year broke a record, the Kentucky Lottery announced Monday.

Sales for the year ending June 30 totaled $823.5 million, well ahead of the previous record sales of $810.5 million set in fiscal 2009. Sales were depressed in the intervening years chiefly because of the recession, officials said.

Arch Gleason, Kentucky Lottery president and chief executive officer, noted that about 75 percent of all lottery tickets are sold at convenient stores that sell gasoline. Even though statewide unemployment continues to run around 9 percent, Gleason said lottery officials believe that more and more people tend to have a least a little bit more disposable income -- money they are inclined to spend on lottery tickets when they leave the stores, officials said.

“The economic conditions are definitely benefitting us,” Gleason said in an interview Monday.

Jon Harry, owner of the Lobby Shop lottery outlet in the PNC tower in downtown Louisville, said Monday that he agrees that many players are shelling out more money for tickets. “It’s not everybody, but many players are now buying two tickets instead of one, or six tickets, instead of five,” he said, adding that a big jackpot or two also helped boost sales last year.

Ticket sales were especially brisk when one Mega Millions jackpot topped out at more than $500 million last spring. Mega Million ticket sales for the fiscal year totaled a record $40.1 million, a nearly 20 percent increase over the year before.

In addition to breaking a fiscal-year sales record, the 2011-12 sales surpassed last year’s statewide ticket sales by more than $50 million, or by more than 6 percent. The 2011-12 sales also exceeded the total sales of $813 million that lottery officials projected a year ago, when they adopted the annual budget.

The 2011-12 ticket revenue translated into record proceeds being returned to the state treasury -- money set aside for scholarships and educational grant programs. The record turnback of $216.4 million surpassed the old record of $214.3 million set in fiscal 2010. The FY 2011-12 return to the state also beat last year’s mark by $4.2 million.

• Cash prizes paid to players totaled $459.1 million, up 8.7 percent from the previous fiscal year.

• Statewide sale of scratch-off tickets totaled $505.9 million, a 5.5 increase over the previous fiscal year.

• Payments to lottery retailers in commissions totaled $50.9 million, a 7.6 percent increase over the previous year.

“After a relatively slow start in the first half of the fiscal year, the transition of Powerball to a $2 game and the successful launch of the innovative 5 Card Cash game helped boost draw game sales to $317.6 million,” an 8.4 percent increase over the previous year, said Howard Kline, the lottery’s senior vice president of finance and administration.

Powerball sales increased $11.1 million, or 15.4 percent, and 5 Card cash contributed $10.8 million in new sales.

Operating expenses for the year were $27.2 million, up $1.8 million from the year before.

Lottery officials have projected that statewide ticket sales in the current year that began July 1 will surpass $850 million. “I believe a variety of new initiatives and game enhancements will help us work to achieve our goal,” Gleason said, noting that sales “look promising” so far during July at the start of the new year.

During a meeting Friday, the lottery board re-elected Keith Griffee, a Bullitt County banker, as chairman. He has served in this role since March 2008 and has served on the board since July 2003.

June Hudson of Benton was elected vice chairwoman. She is a Kentucky Department of Parks retiree who has served on the lottery board since January 2009. The previous vice chairman, Woodford Webb of Lexington, rotated off the lottery board.

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