The Iowa Lottery recorded a surprising nine-percent increase in profits for the past 12 months. Iowa Lottery Commissioner Ed Stanek says lottery sales brought in a profit of 44-point-two million dollars.Stanek says they’d expected to see a two million dollar drop in profit on the heels of September 11th and a downturn in the economy. He says a record Powerball jackpot at the start of the fiscal year helped push up sales. Powerball sales increased by 10 million dollars over the last fiscal year. Stanek says the new terminals used to sell Powerball and other on-line tickets will allow them to offer more special promotions this year.He says they’ve been working the bugs out of the machines in the last year before trying the new promotions. Stanek says scratch-off tickets led in total sales despite a sales drop of four percent. He says the installation of new technology for the scratch tickets hurt sales.He says they had to hold back some tickets as they installed new vending machines and technology to verify winners. Now that that equipment is installed, he says scratch ticket sales are back up.
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