The New Jersey Lottery came up shy of setting a new sales record in fiscal year 2024.
After putting up a record $3.7 billion in FY23, the state tallied a total of $3.6 billion in FY24, a dip of 2.5%.
Lottery draw games were up slightly, but scratch sales took a big hit.
However, NJ Lottery Executive Director James A. Carey Jr. still felt it was a positive year when he addressed the numbers during last week’s commission meeting:
“Overall, the year was a big success. Sales are down a little bit. But we had a big year.”
Scratch ticket sales drop 6% in New Jersey
The biggest reason for the yearly sales decline was scratch tickets.
This past year, the product recorded $1.8 billion in purchases. That was down $121 million from a year ago, a reduction of 6%.
That was a worrisome number for Carey:
“Scratch-off sales are more concerning. We have to do something about that. It is consistent with most other states in the country. Some states have had some success and some growth with scratch-offs in the past year. And we’ll be looking more at them.”
One way that New Jersey may be able to counter the scratch decline could be with iLottery.
NJ is making progress toward being included with the other states with online lotteries. However, it won’t launch its online product until at least 2025.
Should an early debut in the new calendar year occur, it would provide additional sales for about half the fiscal year.
Powerball, Pick-6 lead draw sales
Draw sales in New Jersey for FY24 were $1.75 billion, up 1.1% from a year ago at $1.73 billion.
That was due to Powerball being up 20% in sales, and Pick-6 increasing by 23%.
Mega Millions dropped nearly 12%, but that just speaks to the volatility of relying on draw games to reach sales goals, according to Carey:
“The year overall was led by big jackpots and Powerball and Mega Millions and we had a lot of success there. But there’s things that we can do differently. This was not the best year for lotteries overall and our core games. But what we saw industry wide was that the multistate games led the charge for all of us. That’s something we can’t always depend on. We saw that in fiscal ’20 right before the pandemic started where Powerball and Mega Millions struggled that year, and the lottery did not have the best year.”
Here’s how the draw game sales looked for FY24 and how they compared to FY23:
- Cash Pop: $61 million, up 4.6%
- Cash4Life: $63 million, up 1.2%
- Fast Play: $57 million, up 17%
- Jersey Cash 5: $139 million, up 1.6%
- Mega Millions: $258 million, down 11.9%
- Pick-3: $389 million, down 2.2%
- Pick-4: $236 million, down 5.8%
- Pick-6: $80 million, up 23%
- Powerball: $369 million, up 20%
- Quick Draw: $96 million, down 5%
NJ Lottery June production down 10%
The New Jersey Lottery hit the finish line of FY24 on a negative note.
June sales were $263 million, which fell nearly 10% compared to June 2023.
Carey couldn’t really hide his feelings on the total:
“It was not a great month for the lottery”
Here’s how June’s sales compared to a year ago:
- Cash Pop: $4.9 million, down 5.5%
- Cash4Life: $5 million, up 2%
- Fast Play: $3.9 million, down 23.4%
- Jersey Cash 5: $10.2 million, down 17.9%
- Mega Millions: $10 million, down 25%
- Pick-3: $32.6 million, down 0.3%
- Pick-4: $19.5 million, down 3.1%
- Pick-6: $4.4 million, down 48%
- Powerball: $13.9 million, down 23%
- Quick Draw: $7.6 million, down 5%
- Scratch-offs: $150 million, down 7.2%
Lottery couriers making notable impact in New Jersey
Courier services have a lot of positive momentum in the US lottery industry right now.
New Jersey is a state that features four couriers operating within its borders.
Jackpocket, Jackpot.com, Lotto.com, and theLotter all are up and running in NJ.
During the commission meeting, Carey noted that couriers are supplying about 10% of Mega Millions and Powerball sales in the state.
When it comes to Cash4Life, they make up 20% of sales:
“It’s actually a younger demographic. So, we’ve seen extraordinary success and what’s been true nationally is that lotteries that are selling on the internet, have seen games like Cash4Life do much better with internet sales.”
Until New Jersey is able to launch an iLottery, couriers provide an outlet for those looking to buy their tickets online.
Photo by Mehaniq via Shutterstock
Graphic from the New Jersey Lottery
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