What a difference a month makes.
Just a short time after saying he wasn’t worried about slow Mega Millions and Powerball sales, New Jersey Lottery Executive Director James Carey is changing his tune.
During Thursday’s state lottery commission meeting, Carey expressed concern over September sales numbers in NJ.
The reason? Mega Millions had a big jackpot during the month, but sales were still under budget.
“Our budget depends every year that we will get three or four large jackpots from Powerball or Mega Millions. Those big jackpots usually push us over the budget for the month, and are what help us make our budget numbers for the year.
“So, we had this big jackpot, one of these four big jackpots that we depend on every year, and we still didn’t hit the budgetary number, which alarms me.”
Though NJ doesn’t feature online sales, it utilizes four lottery courier services. Despite that, sales aren’t picking up in fiscal year 2025.
Sales nearly 4% below budget in September
Across the US, state lotteries have been seeing a decline in sales for FY25.
That’s largely because Mega Millions and Powerball haven’t created large jackpots like they did during the first quarter of FY24.
But, in September, Mega Millions climbed to an $800 million jackpot that was won on Sept. 10.
However, the larger jackpot didn’t get New Jersey residents involved.
Mega Millions sales in NJ for the month were just $19.8 million. That was 3.7% below what was budgeted for the month.
In NJ, the lottery sets a yearly plan for Mega Millions and Powerball sales and divides that by 12 to set monthly budget targets. While sales can typically fall below that number, Carey noted that in months with bigger jackpots, sales should be well ahead of that figure.
Overall, New Jersey reported $280 million in total lottery sales for September. That was down 3.1% year over year and 3.9% below budget.
Lottery players need larger jackpots to get invested
Just last month, Carey said he wasn’t concerned about the low numbers for the two multistate jackpot games.
But, following September, Mega Millions is now down 47% YoY in New Jersey, with Powerball 67% behind last year’s sales.
Overall, that has led the state to fall $120 million below FY24’s sales through three months.
Carey associates the issues with players just not being excited about jackpots below $1 billion:
“So, a rough month in September and a rough way to start. And overwhelmingly, you are faced with the fact that multistate jackpots drive a huge chunk of what we do, and players are not as excited by what they used to be. $500 million sounds like a lot of money to win, but it’s not exciting players the way it used to.”
Carey noted that when he began working in New Jersey in 2018, the state would see surges in sales when a jackpot hit $450 million. Over the next few years, that climbed to $750 million.
Now, it’s taking an even larger jackpot total, which concerns Carey:
“Players chase the huge jackpots, and the number that we need for players and non-regular players to come out and play these games is getting higher and higher and higher. So, the fact that we didn’t make our budget this month, is a little bit alarming to me, especially with that giant jackpot.”
Mega Millions price increase to help sales
The need for larger jackpots is driving upcoming changes to Mega Millions.
In April, the game will move from a $2 price point to $5. Carey believes that this will create larger jackpots in a shorter amount of time:
“The driving reason for that change is that most of our funds go into the prize pool, and we know what players are looking for are bigger jackpots. So, by increasing the price of Mega Millions, the goal is to see bigger jackpots more frequently.”
Carey can attest to that theory, as it is playing out with the state’s Jersey Cash 5 game. Over the last year, New Jersey doubled the price of a ticket for the game from $1 to $2.
Now, sales for it are up 81% YoY after reporting $18.4 million in September.
“We doubled the price of Jersey Cash 5 from $1 to $2. Players weren’t too thrilled about it at first, but they really like jackpots.”
Photo by vita pakhai via Shutterstock
Graphic from the New Jersey Lottery
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