Pa. Lottery raises over $1B for seniors, falls just shy of record year

The COVID-19 pandemic did little to harm the Pennsylvania Lottery, as it generated more than $1 billion in profits for the ninth consecutive year to support programs that benefit senior citizens, according to the annual sales report released Monday.

With profits totaling $1.14 billion, it fell just $1.4 million shy of last year’s record-breaking year and was the second-best profitmaking year in the lottery’s 48-year history. Proceeds from the lottery go toward paying for property tax and rent rebates, transportation and prescription assistance for older Pennsylvanians, as well as providing funding for area agencies on aging.

A big contributor to those profits made between July 1, 2019, and June 30 came from the sales of scratch-off game tickets. Those games alone had record ticket sales of more than $3.2 billion last year, according to the lottery’s report. That is up $213.5 million, or over 7%, from the previous year and tops the 2018-19 record of $2.9 billion in 2018-19.

Scratch-off games are traditionally the lottery’s biggest moneymaker. Last year, they accounted for close to 72% of total sales.

“Although we faced many challenges this fiscal year, we are thrilled the lottery had another successful year in which we generated over $1 billion in profit for the vital programs that older Pennsylvanians rely on throughout the commonwealth,” lottery executive director Drew Svitko said in a news release.

Despite the recordbreaking scratch-off sales, the overall sale of those tickets, along with tickets sold for draw games and monitor games, totaled nearly $4.47 billion, which was down by more than $33.8 million, or 0.75%, from the prior fiscal year.

But the introduction of online games over a year ago helped to make up part of that difference as they continue to grow in popularity. The lottery recorded $731 million in online play, an increase of $349.8 million, or nearly 92%, from the prior fiscal year.

Meanwhile, lottery officials remain concerned about the skill game machines populating many of the same places where lottery tickets are sold.

Earlier this year at state budget hearings, Mr. Svitko said that economists estimate skill game machines could lead to a $200 million decline in scratch-off ticket sales and noted that figure nearly doubled from the prior year.

But advocates have countered that many small businesses, fire companies and fraternal organizations rely on income from the skill machines to stay open.

Other highlights from the lottery’s annual sales report include:

• Prizes paid out from scratch-off, monitor and draw games hit a new record of more than $2.9 billion, an increase of nearly $481 million.

• Sales of draw games — which include the “Pick” family and Wild Ball, Treasure Hunt, Cash 5, Match 6 Lotto, Millionaire Raffle, Cash4Life, Powerball and Mega Millions — totaled more than $1.1 billion for the fiscal year. That is down $253.8 million, or 18.6%, from the previous year’s total.

• More than $639 million in prizes was paid out to iLottery winners.