Riding a wave of record-setting iLottery production, the Illinois Lottery put up a new high in total sales for fiscal year 2024.
On Wednesday, the state commission reported that last year, Illinois recorded $687 million from its online lottery games. That was a 31% jump in its yearly sales.
With the iLottery improvement, Illinois generated $3.86 billion in total sales for FY24, up 6.9% from the previous year.
Illinois iLottery sales keep growing year over year
Online lottery sales have been seeing steady growth in Illinois, especially since Allwyn took over the state’s contract in January 2o18.
For FY24, Illinois was budgeted for $595 million in sales. However, it outpaced that by nearly $100 million.
Here’s how iLottery sales have looked since fiscal year 2018:
- FY18: $43 million
- FY19: $58 million
- FY20: $90 million
- FY21: $170 million
- FY22: $279 million
- FY23: $524 million
- FY24: $687 million
Of the $687 million produced, $436 million came from Fast Play sales, up $34 million year over year.
Draw games accounted for $251 million in sales, an improvement of $58 million.
Early FY25 online lottery purchases slightly down
Illinois also provided some early fiscal year 2025 sales information during Wednesday’s meeting.
Through the first two months of the fiscal year, Illinois is sitting at $118 million in iLottery purchases.
While that number is down YoY by a small margin ($119 million), it is still ahead of what the state budgeted for the year. Through two months, Illinois was expecting $114 million in online sales.
Allwyn attributed the slight decline in iLottery sales to the lack of large jackpots in popular draw games like Mega Millions and Powerball. This has been something multiple lotteries have noted early in FY25.
Those issues are impacting overall sales, as well.
The $630 million in total lottery sales are down 5.7% from the $668 million mark through two months of FY24.
Retail draw games alone have seen a reduction of nearly $70 million. At this point last year, they had generated $220 million. Massive jackpots in the multistate draw games helped push states to a strong start in the fiscal year prior.
Illinois has only been able to produce $151 million in retail draw sales. That’s also $7 million below the budgeted target.
Photo by vectorfusionart via Shutterstock
Graphic from the Illinois Lottery
About the Author
