The Iowa Lottery reaped record sales in its last budgeting year, which ended June 30th, but also recorded an eight percent drop in profits. Ed Stanek, the Iowa Lottery’s C-E-O, says the big reason for that was the 17 percent drop in Powerball ticket sales. Stanek says new states and territories have come on board in the past four year, changing the population playing the game and as a result, there were about 50 percent more jackpot winners. “The game needed to be changed to meet the players’ expectations in terms of average jackpot size and some new highs, perhaps,” Stanek says. Stanek says customers want more jackpots between 200- and 300-million dollars. “To do that, we’ve needed to modify what we call the matrix or the game design,” Stanek says. So, starting August 23rd, officials are adding two more numbers to the “Powerball” list. That means Powerball players will pick five numbers out of the 55 numbered-balls that will drop for the drawing. Players will still have to pick a “Powerball” but that will still be from one to 42.The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot will be lowered, according to Stanek, but another wrinkle will double the second-prize for matching five of the numbers. And that second-prize could climb to as much as a million dollars in cash if the player chose the “power-play” option — essentially paying two-dollars for a one-dollar ticket. Stanek says the Lottery also spent two-million dollars to extend its reach into the Casey’s General Stores chain, a big expense that ate into profits. “We had to buy new satellite equipment and a lot of other gear in order to get the 350 Casey’s Stores outfitted so they could sell our Powerball and Lotto tickets,” Stanek says. Sales for the Iowa Lottery from July 1st of last year to June 30th of this year were nearly 211-million dollars. Sales for the previous 12-month-period were 208 million.
