Pennsylvania Lottery sales in fiscal year 2023 are not keeping pace with 2022.
Through eight months of FY23, the state is down over 5% compared to a year prior. That also goes for February, which saw its sales down more than 4% when looking at the previous year.
However, one positive is that PA online lottery sales are on the rise. For the year, Fast Play eInstant games have improved in sales by over 17%.
Pennsylvania Lottery hits $366 million in February
In February, Pennsylvania tallied $366.7 million in total lottery sales.
For fiscal year 2023, that puts the state at $3.22 billion. The fiscal year began July 1 and the state has eight months of data available.
The February numbers aren’t encouraging for Pennsylvania.
Last year, February did $383.2 million in lottery sales. That’s a 4.3% drop year over year.
Through eight months of the fiscal year, Pennsylvania is down 5.4% in sales. In FY22, the state had $3.41 billion in sales through February.
Fast Play online games up big in FY23
While the overall numbers don’t look great, Fast Play sales continue to show promise for Pennsylvania.
In February, the online instant win games racked up $14.3 million in transactions. That is a 19.2% jump from last February ($12 million).
For FY23, only Fast Play games are seeing a notable increase in sales.
The eInstant games for Pennsylvania are up 17.5% this year. Through eight months of FY22, Fast Play had generated just $94.7 million in sales. Currently, they have produced $111.3 million for FY23.
Though these online games are increasing the bottom line, they still make up just 3.5% of the state’s total lottery sales for the year:
- Scratch-offs: $2.07 billion (64.2%)
- Draw games: $1.01 billion (31.3%)
- Fast Play: $111.3 million (3.5%)
- Monitor games: $33.6 million (1%)
The Pennsylvania Lottery features over two dozen Fast Play games. The price points range from $1 to $30.
PA Lottery sales on three-year decline
With FY23 lottery sales behind FY22, it continues a trend that Pennsylvania has seen in recent years.
The state peaked in FY20 with $5.30 billion in sales. Since then, that total has declined each year:
- FY20: $5.30 billion
- FY21: $5.01 billion (5.5% decline)
- FY22: $4.98 billion (0.6% decline)
Should the 5.4% decline thus far in FY23 continue to play out over the final four months, that would be a loss of $268.9 million in sales for the year.
System upgrade in March to negatively impact sales
Optimism for a rebound in March isn’t high for Pennsylvania.
On March 19, the state’s online ticketing systems were down for upgrades.
A complete computer system transition took place that kept players from purchasing retail or online lottery draw game tickets.
While the upgrades ultimately were positive for the state lottery and residents, it came at a time when a Mega Millions jackpot sat at $875 million for a drawing that night.
Using February as an example, the state averaged $12.6 million in lottery sales per day. Having that many hours without transactions available for the majority of games will take a hit to the March total.
Photo by PlayiLottery
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