Mary Neubauer. (RI file photo)
The Iowa Lottery is coming off a record year for sales — but the new fiscal year is unlikely to break that record.
Iowa Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer, says things are good for the current fiscal year which started in July. “So far in the fiscal year, lottery sales overall continue to hold at a really strong pace. As has been the case in the last several years — lottery scratch tickets continue to lead the way for us,” Neubauer says.
The sales thus far are up 7.6% compared to this time last year at $178.5 million. The big driver in the record sales that happened last January is not likely to happen again.
“For the first time ever, the jackpots in Powerball and MegMillions both topped the 700 million dollar mark for the first time — and they both went on to almost reach a billion dollars,” she says.
Neubauer says that gave a big boost to the bottom line. “Obviously, when the jackpots are huge like that, it drives not only Powerball and MegMillions — but our other products as well. I don’t think Iowa Lottery sales are going to be able to keep up once we get to January of this year,” she says.
Neubauer says the year should still be strong. “We don’t think it’s going to end up being a record-setting year like last year was. It probably will still be our number two year overall in terms of the lottery’s performance,” according to Neubauer. “…it’s not that it’s not something to be proud of, but it probably won’t keep up overall with the pace that we saw in fiscal 2021 with COVID and just everything that we saw go on in the past year.”
Neubauer says they will likely return to a more normal year of sales unless the jackpots would grow very large again. But she says that is never something they can plan to happen.