The Iowa Lottery has released numbers that confirm earlier projections that sales for the fiscal year that ended in June were going to be among the organization’s best.
Iowa Lottery spokesperson Mary Neubauer says sales ended up in the top 4 at $325 million. “This is the fourth year in a row that lottery sales have topped the $300 million mark. This year we were led by scratch tickets,” Neubauer says.
Sales of instant-scratch tickets hit a yearly record at of nearly $212 million. The previous record for scratch sales was $202.3 million back in the 2013 fiscal year. Neubauer says they also hit their goal of sending at least $70 million in profits to the state. She says they will send $74.5 million to the state, which is ahead of the budget, and above what they sent last year.
The Iowa Lottery paid out $197 million in prizes — the second most in Iowa Lottery history. An Osage man claimed the largest prize, winning a $2 million Powerball jackpot. There were three $1 million prizes paid out. “We saw four of those bigger prizes this year. I think it was about the same number as last year — maybe a little down from two years ago — but that’s just the natural cycle of those games,” according to Neubauer.
The Iowa Lottery raised $2.2 million for the Iowa Veterans Trust Fund this year and paid local businesses across the state $21 million in sales commissions.