The New York Lottery had a record year of total sales in fiscal year 2023-24.
Despite that, it saw declines in traditional sales like draw games and scratch tickets, relying on video lottery terminals (VLTs) to do the heavy lifting.
Early into its new fiscal year, New York is witnessing its traditional sales still lagging behind.
Though discussions for a New York online lottery have taken place, nothing seems to be definitively on the horizon.
Will adding in more courier services help New York make up ground for FY24-25?
New York traditional lottery sales down over 1%
The New York Lottery has a different fiscal year calendar than most other states.
While many start the new year on July 1, New York actually begins its new year at the start of April.
The past fiscal year saw New York amass $10.6 billion in traditional lottery sales plus net wins from VLTs. That was a new record for the state and up just about 1% from the $10.5 billion it tallied in FY22-23.
Overall, it’s good news.
However, traditional sales endured a decline in its two major categories, falling from a total of $8.3 billion to $8.2 billion.
Lottery draw games dropped from $3.89 billion in sales to $3.82 billion, a reduction of 1.6%.
Scratch sales fell from $4.41 billion to $4.37 billion, a decline of just over 0.7%.
VLTs went from $2.3 billion in net wins to $2.4 billion, an increase of 4.3%.
According to the yearly reports, VLTs garnered $38.6 billion in credits played in FY22-23, then jumped to $39.4 billion last fiscal year, a 2.1% increase.
Without those VLT sales, the New York Lottery was looking at a decrease year over year for its mainstay products.
Early FY24-25 data shows further drop-off
With April marking the start of a new fiscal year, New York is well into its FY24-25.
Already, the state lottery has supplied 20 weeks of sales data for the public.
The information only includes traditional sales.
Through 20 weeks, the New York Lottery has just under $3.07 billion in sales of draw games and scratchers.
Dividing that out, the state is averaging $153.3 million in sales per week thus far.
If we take that average and multiply it out by 52, New York is on pace to fall just shy of $8 billion in traditional sales. It’s $7.97 billion, to be exact.
Certainly, the lottery can prove to be unpredictable, especially with multistate jackpots, but there is a noticeable trend of decline for New York.
Couriers available as NY iLottery efforts fall short
These traditional sales trends are not being ignored in New York.
In fact, Sen. Joseph Addabbo is taking notice.
A member of the state Senate’s Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee has been a big proponent for gambling expansion of all kinds in New York.
If it were up to Addaboo, New York would be joining the states with online lotteries.
He introduced a gaming bill during the 2024 legislative session that would have seen iLottery and online casinos brought to the state.
However, his efforts were not successful this year, though he aims to continue online expansion in the future.
Adding iLottery, like instant win games online, can help make up for retail declines. North Carolina recorded over $1.1 billion in sales from its Digital Instants through eight months of activity in FY24.
Though New York doesn’t have an online lottery, it has given players an online option.
The state has welcomed four different couriers into the mix. These third-party businesses offer online sales of retail tickets for customers.
Jackpocket, Jackpot.com, Lotto.com, and theLotter all offer sales of New York draw games. All sales through couriers do count toward the New York Lottery sales total and are distributed to state funds accordingly.
Photo by Yevhen Prozhyrko via Shutterstock
Graphic from the New York Lottery
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