The Kentucky Lottery had announced sales for the first two months of FY16 (July and August) were $153.1 million, a $12.9 million (or 9.2%) increase over the same period last year, and $631,000 below budget.
Scratch-off tickets continued their strong performance, turning in sales in this period of $97 million. This is $9.4 million (10.8%) more than the same period last year and $3.1 million (3.3%) more than budget.
The report came at a recent meeting of the board of directors.
According to Vice President of Finance and Administration Rick Kelley, the strongest percentage sales increase came from the daily Pick 3 game. This category saw an 11.6% increase in sales from the previous fiscal year, closing the period at $23.5 million. “Popular sets of numbers being drawn in July that our players really like – such as consecutive digits – led to an additional 3.3% in prize payments for the game,” said Kelley. “However, sales tend to go up after an event such as this, and it’s definitely the trend we’ve seen in Pick 3.”
While Powerball and Mega Millions sales for the two months continued to trend downward (Powerball sales were $3.2 million below budget and Mega Millions sales were $1.3 million below budget), Kelley said an ongoing Powerball jackpot run is helping generate increased sales.
Income before transfer of dividends was $37.7 million for July and August, $1.1 million more than last year but $275,000 less than budget.