Indiana Lottery Turns 35; Sees Near-Record Sales In FY24

Image showing lottery gaming with lotto balls along with the Indiana Lottery 35th anniversary logo for a story about the Indiana Lottery celebrating its 35th anniversary.

The Indiana Lottery recently celebrated a milestone birthday.

Its first ticket sale came on Oct. 13, 1989.

That makes the Hoosier Lottery 35 years old, and the organization has generated a lot of money for the state over its existence.

Indiana isn’t among the states with online lotteries, but it is coming off a near-record year of sales in FY24.

Over $18 billion awarded to Indiana Lottery players

The Indiana Lottery was established following a referendum in 1988.

Since selling the first ticket in October 1989, players of the Hoosier Lottery have won over $18 billion.

A record-setting sale for the state came in 2016, when one lucky player in Indiana won a $540 million Mega Millions jackpot.

The state touts that it has sold more winning Powerball jackpot tickets than any other.

Over the past 35 years, retailers have collectively earned over $2 billion in commissions through the state lottery.

On top of that, more than $7.4 billion in lottery funding has gone back to the state since 1989, including $364 million from FY24.

Proceeds from the Indiana Lottery support the Teachers’ Retirement Fund and local police and firefighters’ pensions.

Additional funds go to the Lottery Surplus Fund, which goes toward lowering excise taxes paid by vehicle owners in the state.

The Hoosier Lottery also earned Level 4 certification from the World Lottery Association, which represents achievement at the highest level of responsible gaming.

FY24 sales fall $2 million short of new record

In FY24, which concluded June 30, Indiana tallied $1.74 billion in sales, according to its recent yearly report.

It missed the record of $1.75 billion in FY23 by just over $2 million.

Despite falling behind the previous year, the Indiana Lottery was nearly $50 million over the budgeted total for FY24. It was aided in its year by a healthy scratch ticket performance.

The state recorded $1.28 billion in revenue through its instant tickets. That was a drop of only 2.1% from FY23, a respectable number considering scratch sales are down across the US.

Draw sales for Indiana were up across the board. FY24 produced $464.7 million in revenue from draw games, an increase of 5.7% from the $439.6 million posted a year prior.

Those numbers aren’t just from Powerball, either. Though the multistate game was up nearly $15 million in sales, smaller options like Cash 5, EZ Match, Superball, Cash4Life, and Cash Pop all grew in revenue year over year.

It’s important to note that Indiana is a state that doesn’t utilize lottery courier services. So, these sales numbers occurred all through retail locations.

 

Photo by vectorfusionart via Shutterstock
Graphic from the Indiana Lottery

About the Author

Drew Ellis

Drew Ellis

Lead Writer
A member of Catena Media since 2020, Drew Ellis is the Lead Writer at PlayiLottery, where he handles coverage of the online lottery industry in the US. He previously spearheaded news content at PlayMichigan, where he covered one of the most prominent online lottery industries in the US — among the many other aspects of Michigan's sprawling iGaming market. You can email him at [email protected].
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