South Dakota Seeing Growth In All Lottery Sales Categories For FY24

Image showing lottery gaming with lotto tickets and cash along with the South Dakota state outline featuring the SD Lottery logo for a story about sales being up for the South Dakota Lottery through 11 months of the fiscal year.

The South Dakota Lottery is producing lots of positive results for fiscal year 2024.

With just one month remaining, the state is up in sales in most major categories.

Both instants and lottery draw games are outpacing FY23, and the state is seeing increased revenue from its video lottery terminals (VLTs).

On top of all that, South Dakota continues to improve on its mobile lottery app, which is leading to greater downloads and user activity.

Instants, draw games stay percentages ahead in South Dakota

According to last week’s Lottery Commission Board meeting, South Dakota has $45 million in sales of its instant tickets through 11 months of FY24.

That puts it 1.9% ahead of the $44.2 million it was at through 11 months of FY23. The last fiscal year saw South Dakota record $48.2 million in total instant sales.

Lotto sales, which represent the five draw games in South Dakota, sit at $36.2 million with one month to go in the fiscal year. That’s 4.2% better than the $34.8 million the state had a year ago.

While the South Dakota Lottery didn’t provide precise totals for each game, it did show how each has compared year over year after 11 months:

  • Dakota Cash – down 18.14%
  • Mega Millions – down 7.99%
  • Powerball – up 18.22%
  • Lucky 4 Life – up 9.88%
  • Lotto America – down 33.36%

Of the five games, Powerball has been the main catalyst for purchases. It has just under $20 million in sales this year. That’s more than half of the business for draw games.

SD Lottery VLT numbers rising as well

South Dakota’s VLTs are bringing in more revenue in FY24.

The state reported that the net machine income (NMI) from the VLTs is $304.1 million. Though not up much, it is still 0.6% ahead of last year. Through 11 months of FY23, the VLTs had $302.3 million in NMI.

Over the last year, South Dakota has been able to increase its VLTs. That’s both in total number and in vendor number.

This past fiscal year saw the number of establishments carrying VLTs grow from 1,350 to 1,388. The total terminals expanded from 10,463 to 10,967.

These machines do the majority of lottery sales for the state. While that number wasn’t clearly spelled out by the state lottery for FY24 as of yet, last year it made $1.17 billion in sales from its VLTs.

$30 ticket sales skyrocket in first full year

Just prior to the end of fiscal year 2023, South Dakota unveiled its first $30 scratch ticket.

The price point was introduced in May, so it had little impact on the FY23 sales.

However, Scientific Games reported that the $30 ticket accounted for 11% of instant sales for the calendar year 2023.

In FY24, the new price point is certainly having an impact. Sales are up 873.3%, topping $6 million.

The $30 ticket seems to be impacting sales of $20 games, as those are down 30.5% on the year to just over $8 million.

However, $10 tickets are up 4.3% and $5 tickets have dipped only 2.4%.

The $5 price point remains the instant leader in South Dakota, with over $10 million in sales. That is followed by the $10 option (about $9 million), then $20 and $30, respectively.

South Dakota Lottery mobile app gaining steam

The South Dakota Lottery has been making efforts to upgrade its mobile platform in hopes of making it among the best lottery apps.

One of the recent additions is the ticket scanner, allowing players to check if they have a winning ticket right from their phone.

The app also allows users to enter second-chance drawings and view winning numbers.

The state lottery has seen its app downloaded on 27,840 different devices.

In May alone, South Dakota reports the scanner function was used 27,155 times.

The app should continue to generate increased downloads in the fall. South Dakota is targeting October for the launch of its mobile claims process that will allow users to receive winnings between $101-$5,000 through their online account.

South Dakota’s lottery website also had strong May traffic. It averaged 5,690 sessions per day in the month, with a total of 39,139 different users over the 31 days.

The state lottery reports it currently has 42,831 members of its Players Club.

Though it’s progressing with online rewards claims, South Dakota is not among the states with online lotteries.

 

Photo by Mehaniq via Shutterstock
Graphic from the South Dakota 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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