There are good years, then there is the year the Ohio Lottery just had.
On Wednesday, Ohio reported its fiscal year 2024 total sales, and the state set records in a number of major categories.
Traditional lottery sales were at a new high of $4.54 billion, up 1.8% from last year’s previous record.
The numbers were steady across the board, as Ohio bucked a bit of a national trend with growth in its scratch ticket sales.
The state also expanded its lottery draw games and video lottery terminal (VLTs) sales.
All of this led to the Ohio Lottery contributing a record $1.51 billion to the Lottery Profits Education Fund.
Scratch-off ticket sales reach $2.38 billion in Ohio
Where the Ohio Lottery really shined during FY24 was its scratch game sales.
The $2.38 billion it sold was a new record for the state and a 1.9% jump from last year’s mark.
That growth is a notable difference from the rest of the country. The Ohio Lottery reported that US scratch sales collectively were down nearly 1% year over year. Lotteries of interest, or top-selling states, were seeing a 3% decline in scratch sales.
Self-service kiosks were important in the successful year for Ohio. Those alone drew in $633.3 million in sales, an increase of 8.7% from a year ago. The average selling price from the kiosks jumped from $7.62 in FY23 to $8.38 in FY24.
The state’s top-10 scratch games accounted for 41% of the yearly sales. Leading the way was its pair of $50 tickets, “Billion” and “50th Anniversary.”
“Billion” was the clear leader with $281.1 million in FY24 sales, while “50th Anniversary” did $128.9 million in sales despite being released in January. Those two games alone accounted for 17.2% of total scratch purchases for the year.
The $10 price point led the way for the highest sales for the year with $552.3 million, equaling 23.2% of the total. When it came to most tickets purchased, the $5 price point took the top spot, with over 88.7 million games bought. That represented 26.1% of the tickets sold.
Draw games go over $2 billion for Ohio Lottery
Ohio may have been off the trend in scratchers, but it was with the national trend when it came to draw game sales.
Most states are seeing an improvement in FY24 thanks to big spikes in Powerball purchases.
That was no different in Ohio. The state put up a record-setting $2.16 billion in sales from its draw games, a boost of 1.7%. That was highlighted by record sales in Powerball, Lucky for Life, and Pick 5.
All three were up by about 10% or more compared to a year ago, bringing in an additional $65.4 million combined. That’s over $30 million more than the total growth of draw games from year to year ($35.3 million).
Here’s a look at how each of the draw games performed in FY24 compared to FY23:
- Pick 3: $418.6 million, up 1.9%
- Pick 4: $272.6 million, up 5.9%
- Pick 5: $70.1 million, up 9.8%
- Rolling Cash 5: $49.6 million, down less than 0.1%
- Classic Lotto: $24.0 million, down 14.2%
- Kicker: $3.9 million, down 6.1%
- Mega Millions: $186.4 million, down 11.5%
- Powerball: $257.4 million, up 27%
- Lucky for Life: $44.7 million, up 11.1%
- Keno: $628.9 million, down 1.8%
- The Lucky One: $37.9 million, up 4.8%
- EZ Play: $103.1 million, down 2.2%
- EZ Play Tap: $26.9 million, down 25.8%
- Touch and Win: $36 million, down 8%
VLTs jump up 1% in sales as well
Video lottery terminals put up big numbers for Ohio, too.
While VLTs don’t count toward traditional lottery sales, they still bring in added revenue for the Ohio Lottery.
In FY24, Ohio’s VLTs recorded $1.37 billion in purchases, which brought in $458.1 million in revenue for the lottery.
The sales total was up $12.7 million from FY23, or about a 1% increase.
Photo by Gerry Broome / AP
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